The UK’s fastest growing supermarket Aldi has announced that it will be scrapping plastic glitter from its Halloween range, Christmas cards and wrapping paper for this year.
The move is part of the supermarket’s pledge to remove all non-biodegradable glitter from all products by the end of 2020.
“We want to be sure our customers can enjoy key events without compromising on sustainability,” said Fritz Walleczek, managing director of corporate responsibility at Aldi UK and Ireland. “[This] is why we’ve promised to remove all non-biodegradable glitter from all of our products by 2020.”
The move towards more environmentally responsible manufacturing is gaining ground across much of the retail sector, including party.
“We decided against all artificial glitter from our make-up offering last year,” offered Palmer Agencies’ Sergio Battaner. “Just before the ground-breaking Blue Planet II episode with David Attenborough. It was almost like a ‘call to arms’ against the carelessness we have shown in the past few decades.”
He continued; “When we decided against it, we did so as we wanted to take a stance on the matter, it was not about a PR stunt. We’ve looked into the biodegradable options, but the fact is that glitter is a mass market product now, rather than specialist territory. I’m glad the multiples have started to act on this. Aldi’s step should be, and is, very welcome.”
Aldi’s announcement is the latest plastic reduction pledge from the supermarket, which has already made significant strides in cutting its plastic usage.