Tackling Food Waste

In understanding that food waste has a significant impact on the environment, SPAR’s dedicated initiatives and projects target this issue at all levels – from production right through to consumption. A significant focus is placed on making investments and creating partnerships that reduce waste along the supply chain and tackle this issue instore.

SPAR is committed to ongoing projects that seek to reduce post-harvest losses, improve cold chains and shorten the supply chain where possible. This has resulted in SPAR not only supporting local farmers and producers but also aims to reduce waste of fresh products from source to store. Further investments in real-time management systems combined with automated ordering systems has helped in reducing food waste through optimisation of ordering volumes earlier in the supply chain.

Creative food waste schemes in SPAR stores provide consumers with the high-quality products they expect but reduce food waste for both fresh and long-life products. Innovative solutions and partnerships have prompted retailers to embrace digital tools to tackle food waste – allowing them to connect directly with consumers to offer products nearing their sell-by date at reduced prices. Alongside such solutions, donating food and discounting products remain core strategies in SPAR’s operations.

Responsibly Produced Packaging

As part of our commitment to reducing plastic waste, SPAR is continuously redesigning packaging and introducing new responsible retailing solutions. As this is applicable to both single-use plastic products and SPAR Own Brand products, we aim to align our efforts with the circular economy across SPAR markets.

With the focus of the circular economy on reducing, reusing and recycling of plastic, SPAR’s drive to redesign packaging has gained increased importance. SPAR country organisations are working hard to ensure unnecessary packaging and non-recyclable materials are removed from SPAR Own Brand products wherever possible. Key considerations include assessing opportunities to reduce CO₂ emissions at the production phase and reduce energy consumption during recycling processes. With the goal of reducing waste, close cooperation across industries and stakeholders is a priority for SPAR.

Beyond removing single-use plastics instore, there is a strong tendency to offer reusable products and solutions. This is being driven not only in self-service and food-to-go stations but across SPAR’s resalable and non-resalable product departments.

Recycling Programmes

SPAR country organisations have significantly stepped up their recycling initiatives – working with and educating customers on ways to consume responsibly through tailored recycling programmes. Our recycling efforts create win-win outcomes for all parties involved, tackling issues in ways that benefit local communities. This is reflected in our Distribution Centre (DC) operations, where we separate and recycle excess packaging materials before delivery to stores. Close cooperation between the DCs and stores further ensures recycling opportunities are maximised, as tertiary packaging is collected from stores and returned to the DC.