Lidl GB has become the first UK supermarket to use ‘Prevented Ocean Plastic’ in its water bottles.
Appearing in stores from July, Lidl’s 1 litre San Celestino Italian Sparkling Mineral Water bottles will contain a minimum of 30% plastic which would have otherwise ended up in the ocean.
With 12 million bottles of the item sold annually, this initiative is expected to save almost 100 tonnes of plastic from entering oceans per year, equivalent to almost 4 million plastic water bottles.
The move builds on the discounter’s previous strides in this space. In 2020, Lidl became the first UK supermarket to introduce food packaging using Prevented Ocean Plastic. Since then, it has been rolled out across a range of Lidl’s own-label fresh fish, breaded poultry, sausage and fresh fruit products, meaning that the retailer has already prevented the equivalent of more than 15 million plastic water bottles from entering the ocean.
Shyam Unarket, Head of Responsible Sourcing and Ethical Trade at Lidl GB, said: “Ocean plastic pollution is a pressing environmental concern; it is expected that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish. As pioneers of integrating ocean-bound plastic into our packaging in 2020, we have been consistently building and improving on our efforts since, and are proud to now extend Prevented Ocean Plastic into water bottles. Through this latest product development, we hope to inspire wider efforts across the industry.”
Prevented Ocean Plastic packaging is made from discarded water bottles found in Southeast Asia within 30 miles of a coastline or major waterway that feeds into the ocean. This waste is then sorted and processed before being used in packaging.
