Lidl – The circular model of resource recovery – closing the loop

Resource recovery model / Household items / Lidl / Lidl / Use of recycled plastic / by

Lidl Romania launched in October 2021 its second collection of household items, made of 100% recycled plastic (the first collection was launched in April 2021). Almost 23 tons of recycled plastic were used to make the products in this collection.

This practice is specific to circular resource recovery models, which aim to recover and recycle waste into secondary raw materials. In this way waste is diverted from final disposal and a decoupling from virgin resource extraction takes place.

Features:

  • Strategy: REset Plastic – the Schwarz Group’s plastic reduction strategy;
  • Vision: ‘Less plastic – closing the loop’;
  • Resources: post-consumer recycled plastic material (100% recycled plastic -PCR) (PreZero Collection – the environmental division of the Schwarz Group);
  • Prevention: Minimise consumption of virgin raw material – the manufacturing process of the products in the collection uses significantly less resources than conventional products made from virgin plastic;
  • Recycling: plastic waste from households was collected by PreZero, cleaned, shredded and then processed into regranulated plastic from which new products were made;
  • Results achieved: In this way, it was possible to recover and use almost 23 tonnes of plastic waste in the manufacture of new household products available in Romanian stores, and to recover and use 1,400 tonnes of plastic waste in the manufacture of the same types of products that ended up in Lidl stores around the world;
  • Economic benefits: Earn revenue from resource recovery and reduce costs of virgin resource acquisition (decrease dependence on virgin raw materials).