Belgium’s first ‘zero waste shop’ to open in Antwerp

The first supermarket without plastic packaging is scheduled to open on June 29, reports Gazet van Antwerpen. ‘Robuust, the zero waste shop’, is the first of its kind in Belgium, according to owner Savina Istas, and only the fourth such shop in the world; Texas, Spain, Italy and Berlin all have their own version of the packaging-free store.

In Antwerp’s Reyndersstraat, the eco-friendly supermarket will offer products in large silos and buckets with scoops that customers can use to help themselves. Customers are encouraged to bring their own empty jars and containers to fill, which are weighed and labelled upon arrival to the store. At checkout, everything is weighed again in order to calculate how much the customer owes.

Robuust plans to sell a range of food items including sugar, biscuits, chocolate, assorted cereals, dried goods like pasta and rice, coffee, tea and juice. It will also offer non-edibles such as cleaning products, laundry detergent, liquid soap and shampoo.