Our shopping bag journey

As a Travel Retail leader serving hundreds of thousands of passengers daily, we are committed to building a more sustainable Travel Retail industry.

One of the focuses of our CSR program is to promote responsible packaging and disposables. It has been especially challenging to create a sustainable strategy for our shopping bags given the diversity of our brand portfolio across three segments: Travel Essentials, Duty Free & Fashion and Foodservice, and the vast range of products we sell. But we have made a good start.

We want to invite you to join us on a more sustainable journey! Scroll down to find out more about our new shopping bag approach.

 

Reduce

As a first step on this journey, we minimized the environmental impact of shopping bags and REDUCED the number of bags we distribute in our stores.

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To do so, we have decided, ahead of any global regulation, that we will no longer automatically offer a bag to customers in our stores.

We can leverage our extensive network of stores globally (5,000+) to spread the word and help educate customers about the fact that an effective way to become more sustainable is to reduce the amount of unnecessary packaging we use, such as single-use bags.

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Responsible & Recyclable

Customers come first, and we understand that sometimes bags are needed. Therefore, as a second step, we have switched to bags made of the most RESPONSIBLE materials and that can be RECYCLED, everywhere we operate.

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Choosing the best materials for our bags was a challenge. The preferable option is certified FSC or PEFC paper bags, which have the least negative impact considering the entire lifecycle and the global Travel Retail environment. 

Given the different nature of products, our range of shopping bags also includes several other material options. For heavy or cold/hot items for which paper can break or for which must be sealed, or for transparent bags to meet ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) requirements, we offer responsible alternatives:

  • 100% Bioplastic from natural sources
  • Plastic bags made from recycled plastic (RPET)
  • Woven bags made from recycled content
  • Organic cotton tote bags

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Go beyond and give back

We know that there is always more we can do, and as the last step on this journey, we go further and donate part of bag sales to support charities which preserve biodiversity.

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At a global level, we partnered with two organizations supporting causes that are important to us:

Reforest'Action: Dedicated to preserving, restoring and creating forests around the world.

The SeaCleaners: Providing solutions on land and at sea to protect the oceans from plastic pollution.

We also support local organizations in the countries we operate.

 

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Q&A

A Life Cycle Assessment (also called LCA) is a method to assess the environmental footprint of a product, considering the impact from the extraction of raw material, the manufacture and distribution, to the usage and the end of life. The objective is to take into account the total emissions during the entire value chain of the product.

 The bioplastic bags we use are made from 100% natural sources and do not contain any fossil-fuel plastic. It is called bioplastic because its properties are similar to synthetic plastic. Bioplastic can be sourced from Corn, Sugar, Tapioca, as well as Cassava. For our bags, we favor bioplastic coming from biowaste.

The use of the terms 'Recycled' and 'Recyclable' on packaging has become increasingly common and can cause confusion. 'Recycled' on a packaging indicates that it contains recycled materials; it is always better to specify the percentage of recycled material in a packaging to be fully transparent. 'Recyclable' means that the packaging is made of material which can be treated to be recycled, though the effectiveness of recycling depends on customer behavior in sorting it into the correct bin, as well as the recycling infrastructure available in the region.

Forests are our largest land-based carbon sinks and are impressive carbon pumps. As trees absorb carbon dioxide to fuel their growth, they transform it and release oxygen, thus storing the CO2 and purifying the air. At the same time, forest ecosystems harbour 80% of land-based biodiversity, from plants and animals small and large to fungi and bacteria, which all depend on one another for life. The forest also plays a vital role in the water cycle. Among other things, it helps cool the air and contributes to rain cloud formation, while purifying the water and retaining it in the soil. Plus, using paper derived from sustainably managed forests is much more energy-efficient than other materials and helps store carbon. (Source: Reforest'Action)

Today, we are all aware of the problem of plastic contamination of the ocean; we all have in mind the example of the plastic bag eaten by a turtle. We are equally aware of deforestation issues, causing the loss of forests. At Lagardère Travel Retail, we know we have a role to play in preserving biodiversity. For this reason, in all our operations globally, we join forces to support meaningful organizations developing quality projects to restore forests and protect oceans from plastic pollution around the globe.