The new cardboard boxes in which consumers can expect to find their rotisserie chickens. Photo Supplied
Cape Town - In an effort to go green, Checkers has become the first South African retailer to replace it’s rotisserie chicken packaging with cardboard boxes.
This is part of the brand’s commitment to environmental sustainability, and the new initiative will prevent 68 tons of non-recycled multi-layered materials in landfills every year.
In a statement, The Shoprite Group, the owners of Checkers, said it had committed to package sustainability. To promote the circular economy, it had committed to ensuring that 100% of its own-brand packaging was reusable, recyclable and compostable, and that it contained on average 30% recycled material content by 2025.
Great progress has been made already as products sold within Checkers stores have already been moved to more eco-friendly materials.
Paper and carton boxes in the deli are now 100% responsibly sourced.
Crystal Valley milk has changed cap colours on the cartons to eliminate downcycling, and in the foreseeable future, the PET Thermoform plastic sandwich punnets will be replaced with a kraft carton sandwich wedge that has a small window, for easy removal before recycling.
Group Sustainability Manager at Shoprite Holding, Sanjeev Raghubir, said the group worked towards being more eco-friendly.
“At Checkers, we are designing our packaging to be more sustainable: more reusable, recyclable and compostable, using responsibly sourced raw materials. This is part of Checkers' ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability as we continue to make changes that are better for our planet,” the retailer said.
Checkers has already recycled more than 4 000 tons of plastic and more than 40 tons of cardboard for the year to reverse logistics operations.
matthew.petersen@inl.co.za
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