Avoiding, reducing, and improving packaging

Strategy for reducing packaging waste

Packaging has an important role to play in keeping food fresh and maintaining its quality. Once removed, however, it quickly ends up in the bin, or the environment. What’s more, packaging manufacture has a number of adverse ecological effects. This is why we at REWE Group have set ourselves the target of making all packaging for our private-label products more environmentally friendly by the end of 2030. We have introduced a very straightforward strategy: avoid, reduce, improve. We aim to avoid excessive packaging or, if that is not possible, to reduce essential packaging or redesign it using more environmentally friendly materials.

We reduce plastic waste.

By optimizing various aspects of our packaging, we have reduced plastic use by more than 9,000 tons a year at REWE and PENNY alone.

Improved packaging.

To save resources, we have already optimised the packaging of more than 2,000 private-label items.

The REWE Group aims to make 100 percent of its private-label packaging more environmentally friendly by the end of 2030.

20 % less plastic in the sales and service packaging of REWE and PENNY private-label products in Germany by the end of 2025
100 % recycled plastic sales and service packaging at REWE and PENNY in Germany by the end of 2025
100 % certified paper packaging by the end of 2020 at REWE and PENNY in Germany
100 % of PET packaging for washing and cleaning products to be made from 100% recycled materials, including at least 20% recycled materials from household waste, by the end of 2021 at REWE and PENNY in Germany

Cucumbers without plastic wrap

By changing their transport processes, REWE and PENNY are now able to offer both organic and conventional cucumbers without plastic wrap all year round, saving up to 160 tonnes of plastic per year.

Unpackaged bananas

Since 2017, REWE and PENNY have only sold bananas without packaging, saving more than 205 tonnes of plastic per year. Information about the product can be found on labels and banderoles.

Goodbye plastic bags

In summer 2016, REWE stopped giving out plastic carrier bags at all of its supermarkets; an example that was soon followed by Penny, toom Baumarkt and DER Touristik. At REWE Group we are thereby saving more than 202 million bags every year. Instead, our supermarkets and stores offer alternative reusable carrier bags, jute bags and cardboard boxes.

No packaging for organic fruit and vegetables

REWE is the first of the four largest food retailers in Germany to offer organic fruit and vegetables almost entirely without plastic or with improved packaging at more than 3,600 supermarkets. This helps us to save 210,000 kilogrammes of plastic and 80,000 kilogrammes of paper every year. PENNY is also switching its organic fruit and vegetables to plastic-free packaging or zero packaging where possible, which, in the long term, will allow savings of up to 50 tonnes of plastic every year.

Our packaging goal.

All our private label packaging will be more eco-friendly by the end of 2030.

In a bid to make our private-label packaging more eco-friendly, we have adopted an avoid, reduce and improve strategy. To this end, suitable approaches and potential for improvement have been discussed with stakeholders and in internal workshops, and identified through strategic product range analysis. Our packaging guideline describes our roadmap towards achieving our goal of 100% environmentally-friendly private-label packaging by the end of 2030.