Eliminate Waste

Across the globe, millions of tonnes of plastic ends up in landfills, is burned or leaks into the environment – and that amount is rising every year. At the current pace, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. That is why, at Ahold Delhaize, we’re working hard to eliminate plastic waste. We are a signatory of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme, to address plastic waste and pollution at its source. The commitment calls on companies and governments to eliminate plastic we do not need; innovate so that all plastic we do use is 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable; and circulate all the plastic we use to keep it in the economy and out of the environment. By joining this commitment, we aim to deliver on these objectives related to our own-brand packaging by 2025.

Targets used to measure our performance

• Ahold Delhaize’s brands are working towards zero plastic waste from own-brand packaging by 2025 by making the plastic packaging we use 100% recyclable, compostable or reusable
• Ahold Delhaize’s brands are working towards 25% of own-brand plastic product packaging made from postconsumer recycled content by 2025

By the end of 2021 36% of own brand primary plastic product packaging was recyclable, reusable or compostable. For the second commitment we estimate that by the end of 2021 less than 5% of our own brand primary plastic product packaging was coming from recycled materials.

Our approach

We aim to move to a more circular system to reduce the negative impacts of plastic. At Ahold Delhaize and the local brands, our focus to date has been on where we can make a direct impact: optimizing own-brand product packaging, reducing single-use plastics used for carrier bags, and recycling plastic waste generated in our own facilities. In 2018, Ahold Delhaize signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with UN Environment, to help us drive momentum and ensure transparency in our approach to sustainable packaging.

Our brands continue to improve their own-brand product packaging by switching to more environmentally friendly materials or reusable packaging, eliminating unnecessary plastic packaging and increasing the use of post-consumer recycled content. 

Recycled content in packaging at Alfa Beta

Alfa Beta recently launched a new exclusive detergent and home cleaning brand, “OceaniQ,” packaged in bottles made 100% from recycled abandoned fishing nets collected from the oceans. 

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New recycling center at Albert

Albert has invested in a new recycling center. As part of its sustainability program, Albert has been recycling packaging materials for many years now, giving them new life as secondary raw materials. The brand fills over 200 trucks with pressed paper and PE foils per year. ​

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Reusable bags at Hannaford

The Hannaford Helps Reusable Bag Program reached a major milestone in January 2021 when it surpassed two million bags sold since its inception in 2014, resulting in more than $1.3 million raised for non-profit organizations across  the northeastern United States. 

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Reusable fruit and vegetable bags at Albert Heijn

Albert Heijn is the first large supermarket in the Netherlands to stop using plastic bags for fruits and vegetables. This move will save 130 million bags, the equivalent of 243,000 kilos of plastic per year.

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Our challenge is to reduce food waste while at the same time, offering our customers fresh and nutritious products that make it convenient for them to choose the healthy option. Fresh products often have a shorter shelf life; to avoid food waste, we need to make sure that they don’t reach their expiration dates before they are able to be purchased and consumed by customers.

We aim to contribute to a food system that ensures everyone has access to nutritious food for generations to come. We continuously review our operational processes to reduce food waste, and divert unsold food to relieve hunger in our communities. We have a three-pronged approach to driving down food waste.

Targets used to measure our performance

• Ahold Delhaize’s brands are working across the value chain towards our target of reducing food waste in our own operations by 50% from 2016-2030

In 2021 the percentage reduction in tonnes of food waste per food sales compared to 2016 baseline was 18%.

Our approach

• First, we reduce food waste across our brands’ operations, including stores, warehouses and transport.
• Second, we divert surplus food to food banks, charities and innovative operations such as restaurants that cook with unsold food.
• And third, we send food no longer suitable for human consumption to other recycling methods, to prevent it from going to landfill. These methods can include animal feed production, green energy facilities or industrial uses.

As Ahold Delhaize is a founding member of the 10x20x30 Food Loss and Waste Initiative, the brands are partnering with key suppliers to tackle the challenge across the supply chain.

Enhance store operations

Technology is helping us to enhance how our brands operate stores. For example, Albert Heijn rolled out electronic shelf labelling to 100% of company-owned stores in the Netherlands and Belgium. Our European brands will implement the technology at more than 50% of their supermarkets in 2021. It enables them to offer dynamic markdowns that improve turnover on aging fresh items, reducing shrink, allowing for faster price changes and improving labor efficiency.