Eco spud bags: Supermarket giant joins forces with Kilkenny producer

Aldi Ireland is working with Kilkenny’s Iverk Produce in  trialling 100% home compostable bags across its 1kg Irish Rooster Potato range, becoming the first retailer in Ireland to do so.

If successful, the new packaging would help remove five tonnes of non-recyclable plastic packaging from stores each year across Aldi’s 1kg Irish Rooster Potato range, a change which would impact more than a million bags of potatoes annually.

Customers will find the new 100% home compostable packaging around Aldi’s 1kg Irish Rooster Potatoes, Ireland’s most popular potato variety, in stores now. The trial is part of Aldi’s long-term plastic reduction programme, which aims to ensure 100% of its own-label packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2022.

Aldi has been working with two of its Irish suppliers; Kilkenny’s Iverk Produce and Keogh’s Potatoes over the past year to introduce the new eco-friendly packaging across all its 143 Irish stores. The new packaging is made from a blend of compostable materials, meaning customers can place the packaging in their compost heap at home instead of having to put it in the brown bin to be sent to an industrial composting facility.

If the trial is successful, Aldi intends on implementing the initiative fully across its 1kg Irish Rooster Potato range.

Aldi Group Buying Director John Curtin said: “Trialling this new home compostable packaging across our 1kg Irish Rooster bags is another step towards reducing the amount of non-recyclable plastic packaging used across our stores.

“We are delighted to be the first retailer in Ireland to do this, and we understand that customers are constantly looking for more sustainable ways to shop with us.

“Customers can place the bags on their compost heap at home once they are finished with them, to be broken down and used again in the garden. The bags can also be placed into the compost bin, which in turn will be collected by the local waste collection company and broken down at their composting facility.”

PHOTO: Photographed (L to R):  Paul Scally, Buying Director, Aldi Ireland and James O’Shea, Iverk Produce.