Lidl has provided important information on its plastic bags sold at the checkout.
It’s a reflex at the supermarket checkout or during a shopping trip that many French people still have: grab a plastic bag available nearby. Although plastic bags have become expensive in recent years, they are still sold in large numbers every day. Supermarket chain Lidl recently conducted a survey of its customers to understand the reasons why they buy plastic bags at checkout.
The results of this study conducted by Lidl in Finland revealed that most consumers mainly use them as trash bags or buy them out of forgetting their own reusable bag. On the brand’s social networks, 43% of people surveyed on Facebook by Lidl said they used the plastic bag purchased at the checkout as a trash bag, while 32% admitted to buying it because they had forgotten to bring their own bag. . On Instagram, half of respondents mentioned forgetting their personal bag and 26% using it as a trash bag.
Faced with this observation, Lidl has published important information on its website: the plastic bag sold individually at the checkout contains up to five times more plastic than an ordinary garbage bag from a roll of garbage bags sold in this same supermarket. Information that surprised 64% of people surveyed on Instagram. Annu Puurula, CSR manager at Lidl Finland, points out that a plastic bag sold on a roll therefore represents a lighter option, both for the environment and for the wallet.
After this survey, Lidl Finland clarified that it wanted to change purchasing habits by reminding its customers, via in-store displays, to bring their own reusable bags. The plastic bags offered at checkout now display a message encouraging their reuse and the use of sustainable bags. The brand also recommends folding the plastic bag in a pocket after shopping to have it available for subsequent purchases.
Although made from 80% recycled plastic, Lidl’s plastic bag remains harmful to the environment if it is not properly recycled after optimal use. The brand reminds that the main thing is to use any bag until the end before throwing it into the correct sorting channel. The objective is to reduce the overall consumption of plastic bags, the accumulation of which in nature represents one of the greatest ecological scourges today. In Finland, an agreement was reached in 2016 between major brands and the Ministry of the Environment. It aimed to limit consumption to less than 40 plastic bags per citizen per year by 2025.