Sappi, Pick-n-Pay Spearhead Change to Sustainable Packaging
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South African grocery retailer, Pick-n-Pay, and Sappi, Johannesburg, South Africa, have joined forces to launch an eco-friendly, paper-based alternative to plastic shopping bags and spearheaded "a new direction in food packaging." Pick-n-Pay launched the paper grocery bags in September to online customers for their deliveries, and introduced them at their new flagship store in Hurlingham, Gauteng, in late October.
The new store, known as Pick-n-Pay on Nicol, will offer not only paper grocery bags, but also a variety of paper-based packaging throughout the store. All bakery products, for instance, will be packaged in paper bags, as will all fresh produce. The delicatessen will also make use of a range of paper-based packaging made from Sappi's Resilio range of papers.
The new packaging, which has been custom-developed to meet Pick-n-Pay's stringent quality standards, also represents the retailer's commitment to sustainability. Even the new paper grocery bags have been carefully engineered to ensure that the switch to more eco-friendly options does not compromise on convenience. The new bags, which are also being tested at other pilot sites, offer shoppers a fully-recyclable and fully-biodegradable option. In addition, they hold up to 10 kg in weight, and have reinforced handles and a square bottom to ensure excellent carrying capacity and convenience.
"Paper has become accepted as a responsible packaging solution all over the world," says Silvana Dimitrov, manager Retail and Industrial at Sappi Paper and Paper Packaging. "And South African consumers are putting pressure on retailers to offer more sustainable packaging choices too. That's why a great deal of the research and development done at the Sappi Technology Centre, situated at the Innovation Hub in Tshwane, is dedicated to finding ways of making paper the packaging material of the future."
The paper for the new shopping bags is produced at the Sappi Tugela Mill in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The bags are fully recyclable and the fiber can be re-used up to six times when blended with other new and recycled fibers. They are also fully biodegradable, and will not release any toxic materials into the soil or water during the composting process.
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