In 2020, Mercadona implemented the 6.25 Strategy, involving the entire staff to make different processes of the assembly line more sustainable. The plan consists of six concrete actions to achieve a triple objective by 2025: reduce plastic in its packaging by 25%, ensure all plastic packaging is recyclable, and recycle all plastic waste. With these purposes, in January 2021, it achieved the first milestone of the strategy: eliminating disposable plastic bags in all sections, which it replaced with compostable bags. The second milestone arrived in March 2021: it changed disposable plastic tableware for new, more sustainable options, made with more environmentally friendly materials such as cardboard, wood, sugar cane, and reusable plastic. These actions contribute to transforming all supermarkets into the 6.25 Store model and advancing the goal of reducing plastic use by 25% throughout the entire value chain.
The physical supermarket and online sales company frames these milestones within its commitment Yes to continuing to care for the planet, in which it plans to invest more than 140 million euros in the 2020-2025 period. Of the total, 30 million euros have been invested in the renovation of the 1,662 supermarkets in Spain and Portugal ---251 of them in Catalonia--, which was completed in a record time of seven months, thus ahead of schedule.
Customers find information on recycling, new section bags, indicative pictograms on packaging to facilitate correct separation, and new bins for recycling in sections, at entrances, and in the Ready to Eat service (prepared meals to go) in the so-called 6.25 Store. In addition, these establishments have improved their waste management system and included coffee capsule collection.
Elimination of plastics
Regarding plastic management, the company is applying different strategies such as the elimination of material that does not add value, its replacement with other materials (provided it does not affect quality and food safety), reduction, reuse, or the incorporation of recycled material in its composition to reduce the use of virgin materials and promote the circular economy.
Tiendas 6.25 has already eliminated disposable plastic bags in all sections, which they have replaced with compostable bags (which means 3,200 fewer tons of plastic per year), and they have eliminated disposable plastic tableware, which they have replaced with sustainable tableware made with more environmentally friendly materials (which reduces the plastic used so far by 3,000 tons annually). Likewise, since 2019, Mercadona has had a recyclable paper bag, a reusable plastic bag made with recycled plastic, and the reusable raffia basket also made with recycled material, which was introduced years ago in the chain, available to customers at the checkout line.
However, the environmental objective continues to intensify, and in the coming years, the packaging that Mercadona will use will be one hundred percent recyclable, and it will continue to reduce plastic in its private-label packaging in collaboration with suppliers. Examples include the replacement of the plastic bag with a cardboard box in the entire Hacendado coffee capsule category, in addition to reducing the plastic of the capsules themselves, which represents a total reduction of 783 tons per year. The packaging for chocolate bars has changed from plastic to paper, which has allowed for an annual reduction of 35 tons. Sandwich bags, which were previously plastic and are now paper, have resulted in an annual reduction of 186 tons. The category of reed diffusers with the change to glass packaging also represents a reduction of 160 tons per year.
In the coming years, the packaging that Mercadona will use will be one hundred percent recyclable, and it will continue to reduce plastic in its private-label packaging in collaboration with suppliers.The packaging for Hacendado refrigerated pizzas, produced by Casa Tarradellas, has also been changed. The new pizza packaging is made with recycled and recyclable plastic, in a clear commitment to the circular economy. With this change, the company stops using 1,600 tons of virgin plastic per year, which would be equivalent to 64 trucks.
A new bottle for squeezed juice, made from 100% recycled plastic, has been introduced in all stores of the chain, stopping the use of 700 tons of virgin plastic per year, thus reducing the environmental impact. In addition, the new packaging is recyclable, thus fulfilling another of the commitments the company has acquired with Strategy 6.25: that all its packaging can be recycled and have a second life.
Regarding the development of proper management of waste generated in stores, thanks to reverse logistics and the commercial packaging management model, Mercadona has been able to recycle 12,000 tons of plastic film during 2020, of which 3,000 tons are reused to make reusable shopping bags; and avoid the use of more than 180,000 tons per year of disposable materials.
Promotion of circular economy and sustainability
Reuse and recycling systems, food waste prevention and surplus redistribution strategies, and Strategy 6.25 allow for the annual recovery of more than 250,000 tons of recyclable materials that become raw materials again in production cycles and allow progress, in collaboration with customers, towards a circular economy.
Strategy 6.25: all plastic packaging can be recycled and have a second lifeIt is clear that Strategy 6.25 implies changes in different company processes, from the definition of future packaging to coordination with suppliers, adaptation of stores, waste management, logistics, etc. To implement this strategy, the company has trained the 90,000 employees that make up Mercadona in Spain and Portugal.
These purposes are carried out through a plan that promotes conscious and critical consumption, guided by social and environmental criteria, and that pursues a clear objective: to guarantee the consumption of products of the highest quality with the least possible impact and thus help improve people's quality of life.