Environmentally-conscious shopping bags made from SPAR plastic waste

A total of 150 tonnes of plastic waste annually, retrieved from its own retail chain is used to make recyclable shopping bags for SPAR Hungary. The company has taken a major step towards the sensible recycling of the waste plastic film generated and significantly reduces the amount of waste transported to landfills, thereby reducing carbon-dioxide emissions and contributing to a smaller ecological footprint.

“Through our sustainability initiatives, SPAR is working to reduce the volume of waste film generated in its network every year. In addition to this, last year we took a significant step towards recycling some of the generated plastic waste through an innovative circular waste management initiative. This new programme has our partner using plastic waste from the company to make shopping bags that can also be recycled. These products are now available in our stores,” explained Márk Maczelka, head of communications at SPAR Hungary.

Márk Maczelka noted: the plastic film waste is collected by SPAR from all its sites and transported to its two logistics centres for baling. Since last year, the owner of the generated waste is MOHU Zrt., but SPAR Hungary has obtained special authorisation from the waste management company to transfer as much plastic film waste to its expert partner as is used to make recycled shopping bags.

Papier-Mettler manufactures two types of products – a ribbon-handle bag and, from 2025, a giant bag – from SPAR’s plastic waste. According to the plans, SPAR will supply the partner in Germany with a total of 150 tonnes of used film per year for raw material. Through this cooperation, SPAR will achieve reasonable recycling of the waste plastic film, thereby reducing carbon-dioxide emissions and contributing to a smaller ecological footprint. The process will transform single-use packaging (stretch film, shrink film) into a reusable, recyclable product. Uniquely in Europe, the Papier-Mettler plant in Germany is able to turn waste plastic film into a granulate which can then be reused to make shopping bags for SPAR.

The first test delivery was shipped in autumn 2023, and after positive feedback, SPAR has decided to extend this solution to all its stores from September 2024. The recycled bags will have the same lifecycle, durability and stability as the previous bags. In addition to this, the plastic bags made from waste can also be recycled: they can also be reused when put into the sorted plastic recycling bins.

The proportion of recycled materials used in the manufacturing of SPAR plastic bags reaches or exceeds 85 percent, with the remainder coming from other materials used in the production process, such as various stabilisers and colours.