Penny drops plastic yogurt lids
German discount retailer Penny, a part of the Rewe Group, has removed all of the secondary plastic lids from its own brand 500g yogurt cups.
The lids were meant to cover unused yogurt, but now the company is instead selling food-safe and dishwasher-safe platinum-silicone lids at two for €0.99 ($1.17) so consumers can re-use the lids each time they purchase yogurt and don’t use all of it at once.
The move is expected to save Penny more than 50 tons of plastic per year.
The company has started the drive with Penny natural yogurts (0.1%, 1.5%, and 3.5%) as well as different types of Skyr from its own brand, Elite.
The company said its strategic goal for packaging in Germany is to be 100% environmentally friendly by the end of 2030.
In 2019, Penny, which has 2,170 branches and around 28,000 employees, achieved sales of €7.6bn ($9bn) in Germany.
