Lidl innovates with recycled bottles – its own-brand offering is getting greener

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 07. 30. 11:28

Lidl Hungary has taken another important step towards sustainability: it has renewed the packaging of its own-brand soft drinks, so that from now on the PET bottles of 38 products (excluding the cap and label) are made of at least 75% recycled plastic (rPET). The change not only serves to reduce the use of virgin plastic, but also to strengthen the circular economy model.

Due to its versatility, plastic still plays a decisive role in packaging materials, but its production and treatment as waste have a significant environmental impact. In cooperation with domestic suppliers, Lidl is now introducing bottles to the permanent range of Freeway soft drinks that are made of at least 75% recycled plastic. The development does not only affect the Freeway brand: the bottling of other own-brand drinks has also been renewed, affecting a total of 38 products.

However, the company’s goal goes beyond the packaging of soft drinks. Lidl is also committed to increasing the proportion of recycled material in the packaging of cooking oil, wine, dairy products, toilet paper and household cleaning products in the long term, where this is technologically and quality-assuredly feasible.

Lidl also works with the Schwarz Group’s environmental company PreZero and periodically offers its own-brand household products that are partly made from recycled plastic. In addition, sportswear products made from plastic waste collected from beaches and coastal areas are also available in stores – another example of how the principle of a closed loop can be translated into concrete product development.