Carrefour lets the public vote on alternative packaging

In cooperation with Denuo, the Belgian federation of the waste and recycling industry, Carrefour launches the platform ‘Mission Zero Waste’, a participatory consultation to combat waste.

Anyone can participate

The aim of the platform is to actively involve citizens, consumers and stakeholders in the development of packaging solutions. They can suggest ideas to reduce waste, give their opinion on certain solutions and even vote on future packaging initiatives by Carrefour. This could involve both the elimination of packaging and making the packaging material more sustainable. Especially the packaging of fruit and vegetables, fresh products (bread, coffee cakes, etc.) and liquids pose a challenge.

At the moment, Belgium recycles about 84 per cent of its packaging waste. But Denuo wants to reach 100 per cent down the line. “We can only achieve this goal if both producers and consumers commit to less waste and more recyclability,” says Stany Vaes, General Manager of Denuo. “This initiative challenges consumers to think with us about how we can reduce the mountain of packaging waste and how we can reuse the residual packaging after recycling.”

Three stages

In practice, the consultation will take place in three stages. On 9 February, the platform gets launched, and the public will have two months to submit ideas and vote for their favourite initiative. A jury will select the ten best (and most feasible) ideas. In the second phase, the public will be able to vote again, but this time only on the selected proposals.

The third stage is the implementation: the three ideas with the most votes will gradually be implemented in three stores: one in Brussels, one in Wallonia and one in Flanders. Initiatives that receive a positive evaluation can later be implemented on a larger scale.