Packaging

The REWE Group is involved in initiatives and foundations to promote more eco-friendly packaging.

• National German Sustainability Award Foundation (Stiftung Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis e. V.): In December 2022, the company, together with the Foundation, awarded the Special Prize for Packaging of the German Sustainability Award for the fourth time. The competition was centred around concepts and ideas for packaging solutions with high recyclability, a low CO₂ footprint and a long service life. The winner was the family-owned company Saier Verpackungstechnik with its product S-Liner Peel – a container for semi-liquid building materials such as paint. It is made of recyclable material and is also covered with a thin, peelable inner film (peel film). This film can be peeled off after use, therefore ensuring full raw material quality without product residue when the container is recycled.
• GS1: The “GS1 Germany Application Recommendation for Reusable Packaging at the Point of Sale” was published in July 2022: The REWE Group actively participated in this process. The recommendations contain standardised requirements for reusable packaging with regard to essential parameters of reusable containers and their labels. Pursuant to § 33 of the German Packaging Act, the last distributor of disposable packaging must offer consumers a reusable alternative from 1 January 2023. The acceptance of reusable solutions by consumers and the positive environmental impact depend to a large extent on user-friendliness and degree of circulation. Standardisations, as defined in the Application Recommendation, are an important prerequisite for targeted scaling of reusable systems.
• Recyclat Initiative” (Recyclate-Initiative): The REWE Group is a member of this cooperation of partners from different industries who are strongly committed to effective recycling in line with the principle of the circular economy. Their common goal is the development of sustainable material cycles using recyclable material collected in recycling bags. The use of raw materials from recycling bags is possible thanks to special laser-based optical sorting technology.
• NABU: The joint project was extended to include, among others, the issue of packaging as part of the partnership with German Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (Naturschutzbund Deutschland e. V.) (see also Initiatives and Memberships).
• Holy Grail 2.0: Effective recycling is key to ensuring that packaging materials can be reused after disposal. And for recycling to work, packaging waste must be separated by type. To support this process, the REWE Group has been a founding member of “Holy Grail 2.0” since 2020. The initiative aims to improve sorting through a digital watermark on packaging. The codes cannot be seen with the naked eye and are applied to the entire packaging. They are visible to a high-resolution camera at the waste sorting facility and the packaging can be automatically sorted according to the respective data. This results in improved sorting streams and therefore higher quality recyclates.
• Consumer Goods Forum: The global industry network aims to help retailers and consumer goods manufacturers work with other key stakeholders to ensure consumer confidence and drive positive change through “Better Lives through Better Business”. The REWE Group is involved in the Board of Directors and works actively in a working group on the subject of plastics.
• Consumer Insight Action Panel – “Club for Sustainable Packaging Solutions”: The club was founded in 2019 as part of the EU-wide project “Consumer Insight Action Panel” by the Collaborating Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) together with other stakeholders. In addition to the REWE Group, stakeholders from retail, industry, system catering, packaging, collection and recycling as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and research institutes were involved. The aim was to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in the field of packaging with focus on consumer behaviour. The club was dissolved in 2022.
• Initiative “Raus aus Plastik” (Out with plastic): The REWE Group in Austria is working to reduce the amount of plastic on the shelves BILLA, BILLA PLUS, PENNY and ADEG (see also Measures and Projects).
• Cooperation with suppliers and partners at toom Baumarkt DIY stores: In joint cooperations, the sales line has developed packaging that is almost 100 per cent made from recycled plastic. The sales line implements successful projects, especially in the area of paint containers and packaging for potting soil.

The sales lines REWE and PENNY in Germany have already been offering various different unpackaged fruit and vegetable products for a long time. For example, since April 2020, REWE in Germany has been selling organic fruit and organic vegetables largely without packaging or with improved packaging across Germany. As a result, 210 tonnes of plastic and 80 tonnes of paper were saved in the organic fruit and organic vegetables area during the year of the rollout compared to 2019. These figures will continue to rise in line with the increasing sales in this range.

Furthermore, in 2018, REWE in Germany became the first major food retailer in Germany to introduce reusable net bags nationwide. PENNY followed in 2019. In Austria too, the REWE Group has been offering reusable net bags since 2018 – at the time, it was also the first retailer to do so.

Since the end of 2019, REWE Group in Austria has continuously converted its entire organic fruit and vegetable range to unpackaged and loose or to more eco-friendly packaging. During the reporting period, at the sales lines BILLA, BILLA PLUS, PENNY and ADEG, almost all “Ja! Natürlich” pasta products were converted to PEFC-certified paper packaging and “Ja! Natürlich” tea was switched to grass paper teabags. Since 2021, “Ja! Natürlich” has also stopped using single-use lids for numerous milk and dairy products, such as yoghurt, therefore saving plastic and CO₂.

In 2020, the REWE sales line became the first food retailer in Germany to test a free reusable system for the salad bar in five pilot stores in Cologne with the start-up VYTAL. This allowed the company to get a picture of customer acceptance in view of the legal requirement from January 2023. A reusable solution was rolled out nationwide at the beginning of 2023.The introduction of a national open reusable system has replaced the pilot test with VYTAL.

Lekkerland has been a cooperation partner of RECUP since the end of 2020.The sales line therefore offers a reusable alternative with deposit system for to-go coffee cups at participating points of sale. Lekkerland is also taking part in the new reusable system that was implemented in 2023.

Other reusable systems at the REWE Group, such as buckets for cut flowers in PENNY stores in Germany or reusable pallets for transporting plants at toom Baumarkt DIY stores, which are particularly effective at operational level and that lead to a reduction in materials and waste, can be found under Waste.

At the end of 2017, Go Vacation, the destination agency DER Touristik, was already providing all tour guests with water bottles that can be refilled at any tour hotels of DER Touristik tour operators Dertour, Jahn Reisen, ITS, Meiers Weltreisen, ADAC Reisen, Travelix and Kuoni. They have since completely done away with disposable plastic bottles. Guests on Bali are also provided with cloth bags eliminating the need for plastic carrier bags. The water bottles and cloth bags are produced locally. The campaign was extended to Vietnam and Sri Lanka in 2019 and to Thailand (for all SIC tour guests and DER private tour guests), Vietnam and Indonesia during the reporting period.

Since 2020, the sales line REWE in Germany has been selling minced beef from Wilhelm Brandenburg in “tubular bags”. In the year of its introduction, this controlled atmosphere packaging saved around 60 per cent of plastic in comparison to the previous year, corresponding to around 35 tonnes per year.

Reductions in the use of film for selected private label products from REWE and PENNY in Germany, such as breakfast bags and rubbish bags and in packaging of kitchen towel and toilet paper, have led to a significant reduction in the amount of plastic in the past. The REWE Group is also working on reducing materials in Austria: The sales line BIPA has been offering selected products from the bi good brand in refill bags since 2020 (see also Focus Raw Materials - Non-Food and Services). This measure reduced packaging materials by up to 75 per cent in comparison to 2019.

Both REWE and PENNY in Germany have gradually discontinued additional plastic lids for yoghurt, soy yoghurt and Skyr private labels in 500 gram pots since summer 2020. Plastic lids were also discontinued for various curd cheese products. As a result of this measure, both sales lines saved around 185,000 kilograms of plastic during the reporting year. They also offer food-safe reusable lids for 500 gram pots of yogurt / soy yoghurt and Skyr private label products, allowing customers to conveniently and hygienically reseal the yoghurt pot once opened. In 2021, these reusable lids were also introduced at PENNY in Austria, BILLA, BILLA PLUS and ADEG. This can save around 50,000 kilograms of plastic per year.

The REWE Group uses recyclates in a wide range of packaging. For example, many private label drinks bottles are already produced with a significant recycled PET content (rPET). At the beginning of 2019, REWE and PENNY in Germany were the first food retailers to introduce drinks bottles made entirely from recycled plastic – for example, the 0.75 litre water bottle (still) with sports cap from the private labels PENNY Ready and REWE Beste Wahl. All convenience beverage bottles from the private labels at REWE and PENNY in Germany have been made of 100 per cent rPET since the end of 2021. In the area of the REWE Bio private label at REWE in Germany, the proportion of recyclate in the beverage bottles is at least 50 per cent. New listings in 100 per cent rPET have been directly implemented since 2022.

REWE and PENNY in Germany have gradually been making packaging in the drugstore product group more eco-friendly since 2017 by using recyclates. In the "laundry and home care" product group, many products have since been converted to 100 per cent rPET, of which 20 per cent is recyclate. There were some setbacks in this product group during the reporting year due to a change in supplier. In addition, since 2019, both sales lines have offered shower gel and soap of the private label "today" in packaging made of 100 per cent recyclate. Here too, 20 per cent of the material comes from recycling bags.

At Lekkerland, the bottles for the private label Santa Emilia and those of GoFresh juices, smoothies and shots are each made of 100 and 75 per cent rPET, respectively.

In cooperation with suppliers and partners, toom Baumarkt DIY store has developed packaging that is almost 100 per cent made from recycled plastic. Since 2011, for example, private label paints have been offered in recycled plastic containers (Procyclen®) – in 2022, the range comprised 103 products (2021: 111). In comparison to packaging made of primary material, the CO₂ emissions of containers made of recycled materials are reduced by 50 per cent. Since the introduction, the sales line has saved over 1,000 tonnes of CO₂. In 2022, the saving was 176 tonnes. Since 2015, the sales line has also included paint trays, as well as containers and storage boxes made of recycled plastic and is continuously expanding its range of products with recyclate content.

In 2021, for example, the first private label products in the potting soil area were switched to optimised packaging: The improved packaging is made of recyclable film containing at least 80 per cent post-consumer-recycling material (PCR). The range of potting soil using this packaging is intended to be gradually expanded; in the reporting year, it was used as packaging for 20 products from areas such as potting soil, bark or bark mould. In addition, since July 2020, toom has required its plant suppliers to only use recyclable culture pots made of at least 50 per cent PCR. Their proportion has therefore increased from 70 to 90 per cent since the beginning of 2021.