Albertsons aims to reduce plastic waste, starting with private brands

Albertsons Companies is pledging to reduce its plastic waste, starting with its own private-branded products which the retailer calls Own Brands.

According to the Boise, Idaho-based company, the new commitment furthers the circular economy for packaging at the company’s 2,300 Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Tom Thumb, Shaw’s, Star Market, ACME Markets, Randalls, Haggen and other banner stores.

“As we innovate and expand our Own Brand lines, we always keep the overall impact of packaging in mind and seek out ways to improve sustainability for each and every product,” said Geoff White, president of Own Brands. “Our suppliers are strong partners in this effort and, in many cases, are leading the charge on reducing, reusing, and decreasing plastic content.”

The company announced that it is currently completing a pilot on an innovative closed-loop recycling program to repurpose suppliers’ plastic corrugated boxes into new ones. Its Southern California division is working with a vendor to recycle #5 polypropylene crates that suppliers use to ship products, such as fruits and vegetables. After the crates are emptied at store level, the stores return bales of collapsed crates, which are then processed into plastic pellets by approved recyclers. The pellets are then used to manufacture new crates.