The company behind Zara, Inditex SA, aims to reduce single-use plastic in its supply chain but faces resistance from Zalando, a major online fashion retailer in Germany. Inditex requested Zalando to replace plastic bags used for delivering clothes with other packaging methods, but Zalando declined, citing operational challenges.
Over the past year, Zalando argued that it relies on plastic bags for its logistics and believes that substituting them with cardboard or paper wouldn’t significantly reduce environmental impact. The e-commerce giant sells numerous brands, making it impractical to adjust processes for each one.
Inditex, Zalando’s significant partner, is striving to eliminate single-use plastics for customers by the end of the financial year, achieving 95% compliance. Inditex committed four years ago to phase out single-use plastics, including hangers, stickers, and protective packaging, across its brands like Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Bershka, and Pull & Bear.
The use of plastic polybags is widespread in the retail industry to shield garments from damage during transportation. Fashion For Good estimates that annually around 180 billion single-use plastic polybags are used for garment packaging globally.
