Taking their existing collaboration – which dates back to November 2012 – a step further, Italian supermarket chain Unicoop Firenze (Firenze; www.coopfirenze.it) in late February 2014 announced that it would replace all shopping bags made of traditional plastics and used in 103 of its sales outlets with bags made of Novamont’s (Novara / Italy; www.novamont.com) “Mater-Bi” biopolymers. The switch includes gloves as well as bags handed out at the fruit and vegetable sections.

The announcement follows a trial agreement between Unicoop Firenze, Novamont and Industria Plastica Toscana (IPT, Scarperia / Italy), under whose terms the bioplastic bags were first distributed at four sales outlets in Siena province. That deal has now been extended to all of Unicoop Firenze’s sales outlets in Florence and Tuscany.

Novamont sales director Alessandro Ferlito called the deal “a far-sighted decision, which underlines Unicoop Firenze’s strong commitment to social and environmental responsibility, while also encouraging the development of a green economy in the country given that these items are 100% Italian made, from research to production.” He added that the Mater-Bi used to produce the bags would be third and fourth generation (see Plasteurope.com of 01.07.2013), boasting a higher renewables content.