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Major Belgian retailers promise standardised, reusable packaging at scale

Albert Heijn, Aldi, Carrefour, Colruyt, Delhaize, and Lidl have launched a new reusable packaging coalition that aims to accelerate the use of reusable packaging, starting with mushrooms.

The group, which includes Albert Heijn, Aldi, Carrefour, Colruyt, Delhaize and Lidl, will start with a trial in their fresh produce aisles – specifically on mushrooms from the Mechelen region.

By the middle of 2025, shoppers will be able to buy their mushrooms in a reusable container, which will then be industrially washed and refilled by the producer. The project, which will see the containers used multiple times, involves close collaboration between suppliers and supermarkets.

“The retail sector has made significant efforts to make packaging more sustainable by making it more recyclable and preventing excess packaging,” explained Henriane Gilliot, environmental project manager at Comeos, the Belgian confederation for commerce and services. “The next big step we can make as a sector is the shift to reusable packaging.”

The shift from single-use packaging

The packaged food sector relies heavily on single-use packaging, made from materials including plastic, paper, glass, aluminium, as well as some novel materials made from plants, algae, and agricultural waste.

However, new regulations within the European Union (EU) are expected to reduce volumes of single-use and encourage more reusable formats.

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) was given its final stamp of approval on 16 December 2024. Companies will have to minimise the weight and volume of the packaging they use, and ensure substances of concern, including chemicals like PFAS, are below certain thresholds.

PPWR also includes a ban on single-use plastic packaging for fruits and vegetables under one and a half kilograms. The new Belgian coalition is therefore focusing on fresh produce for its initial trials.

The new system “does not compromise shelf life and food safety” and the packaging is still being “fine-tuned”, according to Elke Gijsbrechts, Colruyt Group’s expert in sustainable products. Pack4Food, a consortium of food and packaging companies, is in charge of ensuring food safety standards are met.

Will the Belgian scheme lead to reuse mushrooming across Europe?

Reusable packaging company Dizzie, which provides a pooled packaging solution for three major retailers in the UK, said that for reuse to work at scale there needs to be a “viable commercial model […] that allows specialists to perform specific roles in the cycle”. Such specialisation “creates a focus on driving down costs by maximising efficiencies – one business cannot have the scale/capital/expertise to do it all competing against established and highly efficient specialists in a £200 billion single-use dominated market”.

Indeed, look beyond the retailers involved in the Belgian trial and there are a host of others involved in making this work. Packaging company deSter is designing the mushroom baskets while Mivas is running the washing and sanitising process and Kingslive Pizza is looking after logistics.

Colruyt’s Gijsbrechts, who will be sharing experiences with other countries, said this is “more than imitative; it’s a movement”.

Backed by consumers – despite concerns over cleanliness

Research has shown that European consumers like the environmental benefits of reuse but are concerned about cleanliness and return logistics.

In a recent study, published in the journal, Business Strategy and the Environment, Esther Noëth from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and her co-authors looked at reusable retail packaging for 40 food product categories.

They found support for reusable food packaging mainly among younger and environmentally conscious customers, and the most promising categories include eggs, dry foods and breads. Interest in reusable food packaging is currently low for frozen food products, even among environmentally conscious customers.

For fresh food the biggest barrier is hygiene, the researchers found. However, their results “suggest that high interest customer groups have other perspectives on hygiene as a disqualifier for reusable food packaging. Therefore, this customer group may be pivotal to share experiences as early adopters and showcase the feasibility of reusable alternatives”.