The public concern about the excess use of plastics in sectors such as food production, especially due to the environmental impact of poor waste management, is motivating all kinds of responses and attempts to minimise the effect of this global problem.
The ecological supermarket chain Ekoplaza has taken another step in this direction with the opening in Amsterdam of the first plastic-free supermarket.
The new Ekoplaza Lab is located in the Jan Pieter Heijestraat in Amsterdam and offers nearly 700 food and beverage products without the use of plastics. This policy also affects the bags and packaging available to the customers.
This new Dutch pop-up supermarket offers only bulk products or wrapped in paper, cardboard or other ecological-certified alternatives.
"Do you think we cannot do without plastic with food and beverage products? Ekoplaza LAB proves otherwise! You can find no less than 680 plastic-free organic products in our store," explains the chain on its website.
Ekoplaza has 74 stores in the Netherlands and, according to its management team, the LAB project in Amsterdam is the first step in the implementation of the plastic-free concept in a larger scale. The second store of this kind could open its doors next summer in The Hague and, in the medium term, the idea is that all the supermarkets in the chain will have at least one aisle where only plastic-free products will be offered.
The initiative of Ekoplaza has the support of non-profit organizations specialised in the fight against pollution by plastics, such as the British A Plastic Planet.
Source: la Vanguardia