Aldi Australia is officially the worst of the major supermarkets in demonstrating its efforts to cut plastic packaging use, according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

The AMCS released its Unwrapped 2024 audit of plastic use in Australian supermarkets in November without an overall score for Aldi because the supermarket was yet to published its 2023 sustainability results, 11 months after its reporting period ended.

Woolworths, Coles and Metcash all reported within three months of their reporting periods ending. 

The AMCS said on Wednesday it had been able to finalise Aldi’s result – giving it a 16 per cent weighted score that puts it in last place of the major supermarkets.

Woolworths came first in 2024 with 38 per cent, followed by Metcash with 23 per cent and Coles at 20 per cent.

Tara Jones, AMCS plastics and packaging program manager, said Aldi’s result was particularly disappointing given that it once led Australia’s supermarkets in reducing plastic packaging and publishing information on its use.

“The low scores in our audit show that supermarkets have much work to do to cut down on plastic use, so any drop in score is alarming,” Jones said.

“Woolworths, Coles and Metcash all improved their scores, albeit slowly, but Aldi is notable for going backwards,” she said.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that about 0.5 per cent of all the world’s plastic waste enters the ocean.

While that may not seem a lot, it equates to  between one and two million tonnes of plastic polluting the world’s oceans.

The AMCS is Australia’s leading ocean conservation organisation. Photo: AMCS

Jones said the Aldi result and its approach to reporting showed the federal government needed to deliver on its promise to reform packaging legislation.

“In 2019, Aldi published data on its plastic packaging use in its own brand products and in logistics, alongside a target of reducing plastic packaging by 25 per cent by 2025,” she said.

“But in every subsequent sustainability report Aldi has provided less and less information, with its latest sustainability report giving us no information on which to calculate its plastic use, or if it had cut its overall use.”

Jones said Aldi justifies its lack of transparency “on the same unproven mantra the other supermarkets use – that packaging reduces food waste – despite evidence suggesting packaging does not improve shelf life of fresh produce”. 

“Since Aldi released its 2023 sustainability report in December 2024, it has not responded to our requests for further details,” she said.

The AMCS says Australian supermarkets lag behind those in other nations, including Britain, where some supermarkets transparently report on their use of plastic packaging.

“Industry has shown it can’t be trusted to voluntarily cut its plastic packaging use, and our oceans and marine life are paying the price,” Jones said.