Albert Heijn, Aldi, Carrefour, Colruyt, Delhaize, and Lidl are working with the Reusable Packaging Coalition to pilot reusable packaging for mushrooms in Mechelen, aligning with Europe’s upcoming ban on single-use plastic for lightweight fruit and vegetables.
The Belgian coalition stemmed from the Green Deal Anders Verpakt, which is a Flemish initiative centred around reuse and the prevention of new packaging. Coordinated by Made, it partners with companies with Fost Plus, Pack4Food, MIVAS, FME, Kingslize Premium Pizza, Twintag, M-ECS, GS1, deSter, and Comeos.
It intends to address the ‘gap between ambition and action’ – ensuring that reuse works at scale by fostering collaboration, while also standardizing packaging to simplify the return process for consumers.
By mid-2025, an initial pilot will provide customers in the Mechelen region with reusable packaging for mushrooms. These will be washed industrially to be refilled by the producer, thus enabling the packaging to circulate through the logistics chain multiple times.
With the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation set to ban single-use plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables under one and a half kilograms in weight, the solution aims to comply with upcoming legislation without compromising on shelf life or food safety.
The trial is also expected to bring all major Belgian retailers together in pursuit of systemic change.
“The retail sector has made a lot of efforts to make packaging more sustainable by making it more recyclable and avoiding excess packaging,” said Henriane Gilliot, environmental project manager at Comeos. “The next big leap we can make as a sector is the shift to reusable packaging.”
“This consortium initiative is a unique opportunity to realize a reusable concept across company boundaries throughout the entire chain,” adds Filip Fransen, senior category director Foodservice at deSter.
Last year, the Dutch branches of Albert Heijn, Aldi, JUMBO, Lidl, and PLUS implemented reusable bags for their fruit and vegetable products, aiming to save 126 million plastic bags and 10 million paper bags every year. Each retailer was a member of the Plastic Pact NL, through which the Dutch government and over 100 leaders in the plastics chain sought to reduce plastics and uplift sustainability-minded alternatives.
Since then, Citeo has announced its own plans to launch a new reuse system throughout large food retailers in Western France from May 2025 and bring reusable packaging to 16 million consumers. Following prefiguration and regional activation phases next year, full implementation is scheduled for 2026.
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