Retailer takes free market action for the environment

This story is almost 8 months old, but it’s new to me, and since the blog isn’t that old, I thought I’d share it.

In abbreviated form, the Aldi grocery chain has committed to having 100% of its packaging be recyclable or reusable by 2025.

One story suggested that this is pretty easy for Aldi, as most of their products are packaged with the Aldi name on it.

ALDI is in a unique position to accomplish this goal, as 90% of the stores’ products are made exclusively for ALDI.

“As the sole customer, the chain has incredible power to dictate how manufacturers package, ship and present their items,” the release says.

The manufacturers of the other 10% of popular products will have to redesign their packaging as well, if they want to keep selling them in ALDI stores.

The point I want to return to is this: Government is not forcing this. Aldi has decided to do it–and if it’s something that people see as a value, they will support the effort.

The free market may not always work as fast to solve problems like the environment as government could with “mandates”, but it tends to do so in a way that protects liberty, and isn’t punitive–and it doesn’t create new layers of bureaucracy to enforce.  If Aldi sales increase because of this move, we’ll see more of this type of action.  Likewise, I would suspect that if the manufacturers once figure out the process for packaging in different types of containers, that demand will increase more broadly, and we’ll see these kinds of things happening more.