Aldi is supporting the Marine Conservation Society with a £50,000 programme of sponsorship; the move will see the supermarket become the biggest corporate funder of Marine Conservation Society’s beach cleaning and litter picking project.
Aldi colleagues will join Beachwatch’s thousands of volunteers to support an overall target of picking up more than 500,000 items of litter.
The initiative is set to begin on September 26, with further beach cleans taking place throughout 2024.
It follows other initiatives by Aldi including trialling new plastic packaging free lines of fruit and vegetable products, ditching single-use wooden forks and trialling packaging alternatives for minced meat.
“We are pleased to support the Marine Conservation Society to create positive change for the UK’s seas. We know that making significant changes takes time, but through our commitments we are working towards bettering the environment for everyone,” said Aldi UK sustainability director Liz Fox.
Subscribe to Sustainability Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest sustainability news sent straight to your inbox everyday
Marine Conservation Society fundraising director Katherine Stephenson added: “We’re delighted to have the support of Aldi and can’t wait to get on the beach with their team and members of the public.”
“Our partnership with Aldi means we’re able to carry out beach cleans year-round and collect valuable data that makes a big difference in keeping our seas safe for people, wildlife and future generations.”
A recent report by Systemiq found that plastic pollution could double by 2040 without changes to global pollution policy. The brand Coca-Cola has been voted the world’s worst plastic polluter for 5 years in a row.
Earlier this year a study from scientists at the 5 Gyres institute highlighted that there are more than 170 trillion plastic particles afloat in the ocean, based on samples of 1,777 samples of plastic.
Image credit: Aled Llewyn
