The awareness of the importance of recycling has increased significantly, starting around two years ago but it has become particularly important in the last year, according to Claus Solberg, Category Manager for fruit and vegetables at Dagrofa Denmark.
”Containers for packaging vegetables, for instance, now have to be recyclable, much more so than a year ago. When we are making emblems for the packaging we now need to put stickers on, describing how to recycle the packaging correctly. If I had asked my customers this time last year whether they cared that the new box for a kilo of tomatoes with film, was recyclable, the answer would have been no. They wouldn’t have cared. Now, they do. The topic of recycling is on everyone’s minds.”
The trend towards reusable bags such as the Veggio bag is particularly strong in the area of fruit and vegetables, with both chain stores such as Dagrofa’s customers Menu, Spar and Min Kobmand, and consumers opting out of single use plastics.
”In Denmark, there is now a large tax on single use plastic shopping bags, to encourage consumers to choose re-usable and recyclable options instead,” Claus continues. ”Veggio is a great product for this. I received samples and could see right away that this was a good product. I believe it is well presented in the shop, in a small box with the right signals to a consumer. I knew this would be an attractive option for the shops themselves, because as well as the attractive presentation, there is the option of including a private label, as Meny has done. I expect the trend for reusable bags to continue in the future, there is no doubt about that. I even use the Veggio bag myself. If you had asked me two or three years ago whether I wanted a reusable bag, I wouldn’t even have considered it. Now I have a big reusable shopping bag, as well as two Veggio bags. The bags are very durable, you can use them over and over, an endless amount of times, and they can also be washed, extending their life further.”
The Veggio bag was created by Mia Ekblad at Carrinet Ltd, who has been working on this project for over 12 years. The Veggio was first launched in 2017 on a small scale, but was quickly adopted by a larger Swedish supermarket chain and some Danish chains, with others in Norway, the UK, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Czechia and South Africa soon following. Recently, the product has gained popularity in Panama and Mexico too.
For more information:
Mia Ekblad
Carrinet AB
Storgatan 11
411 24 Göteborg, Sweden
Tel: +46-(0)10-209 14 50
Mobile +46-708-621212
Email: mia@carrinet.se