Aldi Is An Even Greener Store Than You Thought

Grocery store giant Aldi definitely delivers when it comes to offering quality food at affordable prices. But where it also makes a major impact is helping the environment in a multitude of ways. Yes, Aldi is an even greener store than you thought, and it just might make you look at your next shopping experience a whole lot differently.

For starters, Aldi, like many retail stores, highly encourages its shoppers to use their own recyclable bags. "We are dedicated to reducing our impact on the environment. So we ask our shoppers to bring their own reusable grocery bags or buy a few at checkout to use for all their trips to Aldi," Aldi spokeswoman Liz Ruggles told PopSugar. This helps Mother Nature greatly, since plastic is made by using petroleum, which can create toxic byproducts (such as sulfur oxides, methanol, and volatile organic compounds) as a result (via Green Matters).

But that's not the only way that Aldi is going green. According to the Aldi site, the store strives to only stock the most popular products as a way to decrease food waste (via Aldi). And when you purchase fresh food, like meat, it will come with a "best if used by" and "use by" dates, so that consumers know when a product is still safe to consume, and shouldn't be thrown away.

Still, Aldi wants to ensure that food goes to those who need it. So to that end, if there are unsold items, each Aldi store is partnered with a Feeding America food bank to donate them to food banks in their community. This not only ensures that good food doesn't get tossed in the trash, but also helps with food insecurity, too.

And if you've ever taken a pic inside an Aldi's, you know that the lighting is pretty on point. That's due in part to Aldi's commitment to the environment by using LED lighting both indoors and out. Each store also has solar panels, and also features efficient HVAC systems, and are also getting rid of high global warming potential refrigerants in their refrigeration compressors (via Aldi). The brand even has figured out a way to reduce the amount of miles that their delivery drivers have to make as a means of limiting trucks (and their emissions) on the road.

As if all that weren't enough, Aldi is even greener, as the company actively works to reduce the amount of waste produced by its stores (via Aldi). Aldi recycled more than 270,800 tons of material (in the form of cardboard, plastic wrap, batteries, damaged or unusable pallets, and electronics) in 2018 alone.

So the next time you shop at Aldi's, you can feel good about getting your weekly groceries from this green, eco-friendly food store. Just remember to bring your reusable bags — and a quarter for that shopping cart.