The days of bioplastic (or biosourced) bags are now numbered at our stores' fruit and vegetable stalls. Even though they are largely made up of plant matter and can theoretically be composted in people's homes, the main defect of these bags is that they are not recyclable. Carrefour has therefore decided that starting this autumn, they will no longer be freely available. Instead, our customers will be able to wrap up their fruit and vegetables sold loose in recyclable kraft paper bags, or in organic cotton reusable bags.
The kraft bags are made of 100% FSC-certified paper derived from sustainably managed forests and proved very popular among our customers in a number of test stores over the summer. They will gradually be introduced to all store formats starting this autumn. They will be available in the fruit and vegetable sections as bags with translucent windows (also made of paper), instead of the bioplastic bags currently in use.
Reusable bags made of woven organic cotton will be introduced in the fruit and vegetable sections of our hypermarkets between now and the end of September to coincide with this year's European Sustainable Development week. They will be on sale at €0.99, or €2.80 for a pack of three. Cotton bags will subsequently be introduced at our Convenience and Market stores.
Non-recyclable bioplastic bags will start to disappear from all of our fruit and vegetable stalls this autumn, to be replaced by kraft paper bags and reusable organic cotton ones. At the same time, kraft shopping bags will be on sale at cost price.