Spar Austria has introduced reusable bags for fruit and vegetables, as part of its efforts to reduce the use of plastic bags.
Spar, through its hypermarket division Interspar, has launched new polyester net bags with a drawstring for loose fruit.
Serving as an alternative to plastic bags, the new reusable bags are said to be washable and environmentally friendly.
Each reusable bag can accommodate up to eight pieces of fruit or vegetables. The bags are available as a four-pack in all Interspar hypermarkets in the country at a price of €1,49.
Spar supermarkets and Interspar hypermarkets saved over 20% of fruit and vegetable bags in 2017, as part of the sustainability agenda from the ministry of sustainability and tourism.
Spar is focusing on providing sustainable packaging for all product ranges. Last year, Spar Austria replaced the plastic packaging of enjoy sandwiches with cardboard, enabling to save 22 tons of plastic per annum.
Earlier, Spar also tested alternatives to fruit and vegetable bags. In 2014, the hypermarket launched light-weight organic bags, which were developed by using bio-plastic.
In 2016, Spar also launched paper bags to pack fruit and vegetables.
Spar said both options proved to be impractical and resulted in no significant CO2 savings.
Spar is a food retail chain with more than 12,500 stores in 44 countries on four continents. It operates wholesale and retail businesses across the world.
Spar operates a multi-format retail strategy, which allows its partners to adjust their retail proposition as per specific customer needs in different markets.
Spar, Spar Express, Eurospar and Interspar are different types of formats for different customers in the world.
SPAR is the original format and operated by its partners, while Spar Express is for high footfall transit locations such as petrol stations, airports, bus and railway stations and city centres.
Eurospar is a larger supermarket format, while Interspar is a largest Spar ormat with a sales area in excess of 3,000m².
