Over 90% of all shopping bags sold in our retail chain are plastic. In some sections like bread, fresh meat and fish we offer an alternative - paper bags or wrapping paper. Our company reduces the consumption of plastic bags and its potential negative impact on the environment by various means. For example, our IKI plastic bags are partly made from our own recycled plastic. To our customers, we offer reusable bags and we see that they are becoming more and more popular. The biggest problem we see is with the use of small plastic bags used to put goods like fruits and vegetables, sweets, etc. During the last 10 years, customers became so much attached to them that they use around 150 millions small plastic bags each year. Simple paper bags is not the solution due to its size – some people want to put 2 kg of apples or 5 kg of potatoes and it cost a lot to the company.
Our challenge to the participants of the hackathon is to think of an alternative to small plastic bags that would be strong and cost friendly to the company.
