Aldi eco store opens with features that could be rolled out to shops nationwide

The supermarket has been designed to make it easier for shoppers to reduce, reuse and recycle, with bosses trialling a number of plastic-reduction initiatives.

It has also been designed to 'significantly' reduce carbon consumption, using sustainable building materials and featuring design changes estimated to reduce life-cycle carbon emissions by up to two-thirds.

Aldi bosses have said they will use the new store in Leamington Spa - which opened on Thursday - to test which elements work best before deciding whether roll them out to other shops.

Features for shoppers include:

• 'Hard to recycle' unit - located at the store entrance, it allows customers to recycle items not currently collected by local authorities. Aldi says it will be the first UK retailer to trial a recycling point for coffee pods and medicine packets, as well as accepting batteries, soft plastics and cosmetic packaging.

• Nuts and coffee refill fixture – to help customers shop more sustainably and cheaply, Aldi is trialling packaging-free products. Customers can bring their own containers or free FSC-certified paper bags.

• Dedicated Electric Vehicle Charging Ports, with capacity to expand these in the future as demand for the spaces increases.

The store will also have solar panels and use chiller doors to reduce energy consumption, while the building itself has timber fibre insulation, cement replacement concrete, recycled lighting columns and low temperature asphalt and a partial green roof.

Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “Now more than ever, we must do our bit for the environment and this store offers us the ability to easily explore new in-store initiatives and low carbon store designs. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact in any way we can and are continuing to explore new initiatives all the time.

“What’s even better is that many of the changes made to this store, whether it be the energy-saving initiatives or our latest packaging-free trial, could allow us to put even more money back into the pockets of our customers."