By rethinking something as humble as a potato bag, the Shoprite Group has pulled off a quiet revolution. With the rollout of South Africa’s first fully recyclable 7kg potato pocket, the retail giant hasn’t just nudged the needle on sustainability – it’s redrawn the map entirely.

Until now, the ubiquitous potato bag was a case study in design compromise. It featured a durable outer layer and an inner wet-strength liner to meet industry standards set by Potato SA – a critical feature to contain moisture and prevent spoilage. But that same moisture-resistant layer made the packaging a recycling nightmare. In 2023 alone, South Africa sent an estimated 18 600 tons of these bags to landfill.

According to the Shoprite Group, the bag was incompatible with local recycling systems in its original form. The inner liner couldn’t be broken down using standard repulping processes. Any alternative had to be either widely recyclable, reusable or compostable – nothing less would do.

The solution wasn’t found in a glossy consultant deck or an offshore design lab. Instead, it emerged from within. A five-person Shoprite Group team, drawn from multiple departments, took on the redesign challenge as part of a leadership development programme, presented in partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). The programme encourages participants to solve real-world business problems through Action Learning Projects (ALPs), and the potato bag quickly became their crucible of innovation.

This wasn’t merely a learning exercise – it was an opportunity to explore how deeply sustainability can be woven into the retailer’s mindset, not just its operations.

But idealism ran headfirst into hard technical realities. Recyclers required proof that any new formulation would break down under production-scale conditions. Early tests, conducted in collaboration with Mpact – southern Africa’s largest paper and plastics recycler – failed. A large-scale repulpability trial at Mpact’s Felixton Mill showed that the first iteration didn’t hold up in a commercial recycling environment.

While the initial formulation fell short, the second attempt passed local recyclability tests – meeting all technical criteria, incurring no additional costs and integrating seamlessly into existing operations.

Enter Billerud, the Group’s long-standing paper supplier with R&D facilities in Sweden. Its material scientists engineered a semi-wet-strength paper that struck the right balance – durable enough to handle moisture, yet still repulpable. In subsequent trials, this version passed all local recyclability benchmarks.

It was a packaging solution hiding in plain sight, now ready to scale. With a careful transition plan, the Group aligned its supplier base – including farmers and packaging manufacturers – to phase out non-recyclable stock. By May 2025, the new bags had rolled out across more than 1 400 Shoprite, Checkers and Usave stores.

It took several months for potato farmers to run through their existing stock of non-recyclable pockets, while careful planning ensured local bag manufacturers transitioned to the new formulation as supplies of paper and bags were phased out. The Group then coordinated a wider roll-out by working closely with its network of growers to drive adoption of the new bags across their operations.

More than just a packaging success story, the initiative hints at broader transformation. If industry peers adopt the recyclable bag, the change could unlock up to R22-million annually for informal waste reclaimers. The Group hopes to set a precedent for the broader industry to follow, encouraging a shift towards fully recyclable potato pockets.

While these leadership-driven innovations extend beyond sustainability and packaging, the Group remains committed to developing and implementing more homegrown solutions.

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