Initiative

World's first plastic free supermarket opens in Amsterdam with a Bluewater water dispenser inside

Dutch supermarket chain Ekoplaza today launched a pilot metro market in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, stocked with over 700 plastic-free products ranging from meats to fresh fruit and vegetables. Bluewater, a world leader in water purification technologies and solutions, contributed a unique public hydration station that delivers on-demand pure drinking water free of micro-plastics and other contaminants ranging from lead to pesticides and gender-bending hormones. 

"Micro-plastics are today found in over 80% of the world’s tap water according to new research, while other studies indicate pollution of drinking water by pervasive gender-bending chemicals and hormones is leading to lower fertility rates and hormone disruption in young women and men," said Anders Jacobson, President of Bluewater and co-founder and CEO of the company’s holding company, Blue. Noting that the health impact of the plastics swamping the world’s oceans are increasingly being documented by new studies, Jacobson described Ekoplaza’s initiative to debut plastic free aisles as an "innovative, exciting and necessary way to provide a solution to the catastrophic pollution of the planet by single use plastics." 

The plastic free aisle initiative was spurred by international environmental campaign group A Plastic Planet, a grassroots movement geared to turn off the plastic tap. A Plastic Planet co-founder Sian Sutherland said Ekoplaza’s initiative "represents a landmark moment for the global fight against plastic pollution and opening the door to a new future where the public are finally given a choice about whether to buy plastic or plastic free." Ekoplaza says it intends to rollout plastic free aisles across its 74 branches in the Netherlands over the coming 12 months. The next opening is scheduled for The Hague in June, and Bluewater plans to provide Ekoplaza customers in the Dutch port the opportunity to drink plastic free water as they shop shelves also devoid of polluting layers of plastic.

Bluewater Group