S Group rejects maligned plastic bags: Returns to cardboard boxes for food orders

Customers were dissatisfied with orders arriving in plastic bags in the spring. The return to boxes is due to the fact that the collection center received a folding machine.

S Group has once again started packaging food orders placed in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area online store in cardboard boxes instead of plastic bags.

HS reported in March that customers had started receiving their orders in plastic bags. Customers felt the change was bad in terms of both sustainability and practicality.

Teija Hammar from Helsinki photographed a food order in the spring, which had been packaged in a lot of plastic bags. A few bags containing frozen food were missing from the photo. Photo: Teija Hammar

At the time, S Group explained the switch to plastic bags by saying that products had gradually started to be delivered more and more from the HOK-Elanto collection center. The center was put into use in June last year and had had to look for different packaging solutions there.

The recent return to cardboard boxes took place at the collection center about a couple of weeks ago, says Emilia Ala-Kurikka, who is responsible for the S Group’s online food store.

According to Ala-Kurikka, the reason for the change is that the Vantaa collection center finally received a cardboard box folding machine.

“It took a surprisingly long time for it to arrive,” Ala-Kurikka admits.

According to Ala-Kurikka, another challenge was finding suitable cardboard boxes for the collection center. The collection center in Vantaa is automated, meaning people work there with robots.

In an automated process, the products ordered by the customer are assembled into a plastic tray, inside of which is the cardboard box that will later end up with the customer.

For this reason, according to Ala-Kurikka, it was necessary to find a cardboard box model for the automated center that was the right size to the millimetre.

“Of course, we also listened to customer feedback,” Ala-Kurikka adds.

The boxes that now arrive at customers from the collection center differ from the boxes that come directly from stores only in size.

Both customers and drivers have welcomed the return to boxes, Ala-Kurikka says.

“The cardboard box is a superior solution for food packaging.”

A cardboard box that S Group uses for food orders sent from the Vantaa collection center. Picture of an order delivered on Monday last week. Photo: HS

At the same time, however, S Group has also considered other recyclable and sustainable packaging solutions, for example with the Finnish Food Authority.

For now, however, cardboard boxes are rolling out of the Vantaa collection center at a steady pace.