Carrefour stops flyers in mailboxes in Lyon and Villeurbanne
The brand stops distributing its catalogs in Lyon and Villeurbanne from this Monday, January 17, to reduce paper waste.
Less paper. The Carrefour brand stops distributing its paper catalogs in the mailboxes of the inhabitants of Lyon and Villeurbanne from this Monday, January 17. This experiment aims to reduce the waste of paper, and will allow the group to measure its impact on its sales before generalizing it.
The group is thus moving to a larger scale after having already tested the elimination of its paper catalogs in some of its hypermarkets last year. The brand indicates that its customers can choose, on its internet platform, their means of receiving their catalog, either in a dematerialized way, or, always, by post. According to the results of the first experiments carried out locally, “88% of customers of the Lille hypermarket favored the digitalization of the catalog”, see the group.
The operation now concerns all Carrefour hypermarket stores and Carrefour Market supermarkets in the towns concerned, ie 35 stores, representing potential savings of nearly 1,000 tonnes of paper over one year. “This step is part of Carrefour’s desire to limit the loss of catalogs (…), too many catalogs going directly to the trash. We will avoid this waste by gradually deploying this system throughout the national territory”, according to Elodie Perthuisot, Executive Director of the Group’s digital transformation. Carrefour had already taken measures by using for its catalogs paper from eco-managed forests and recycled 7 times on average. “Today, the goal is to avoid unnecessary paper consumption”, affirms the communication of the group.
According to Ademe (Ecological Transition Agency), 42% of consumers believe that the paper catalog represents a form of waste. On average, although the figure is falling each year, more than 700,000 tons of unwritten letters are deposited in the mailboxes of French people according to the public body, or about 25 kg per year and per household. However, the digital alternative offered by Carrefour, for example sending its catalogs by email, is not a virtuous solution either. Digital pollution is itself pointed out by environmental associations, in particular that linked to simple emails: according to Ademe, each email would be equivalent to the consumption of a light bulb lit for 24 hours. Carrefour has not yet found the martingale to achieve a sustainable model.