Aldi removes plastic straws from own-label drinks cartons

Aldi has removed plastic straws from all own-label drinks cartons. Instead, all of these drinks now come with a paper straw that’s fully recyclable and made from FSC-certified cardboard.

According to Aldi, this will remove 70 million plastic straws from circulation – equating to more than 100 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic each year.

Richard Gorman, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi UK, said: “Removing plastic straws from own-brand drinks cartons is another step in our journey to reducing plastic packaging across our products.

“Our customers want environmentally-friendly products, and plastic straws are one thing, in particular, that people want to move away from to help make a difference.”

The move is one of many packaging changes Aldi has introduced as it looks to halve the amount of plastic packaging it uses by the end of 2025.

Other recent initiatives include the removal of plastic packaging from its entire egg range in England and Wales and switching plastic shrink-wrap on multipack soft drinks cans to cardboard.

Aldi says it is on track to have all product packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by the end of 2025.