Qatar Duty Free is considering introducing other sustainable concepts into its stores, either by the end of this year or in early 2024.

Thabet Musleh, Senior Vice President, Qatar Duty Free (QDF) has confirmed to TRBusiness that the travel retailer has received positive and negative feedback from consumers since reusable cotton shopping bags were introduced into select stores at Hamad International Airport, but insists the initiative has nonetheless achieved “huge success”.

As reported, QDF has replaced 100,000 single-use plastic shopping bags per month with reusable cotton variants at its Day2Day essentials stores at Hamad International Airport in a tie-up with Supreme Creations.

Initially piloted at eight stores, the reusable cotton shopping bags are now present in every Day2Day store location, learns TRBusiness.

“The was plan always to roll it out at Day2Day [shops] and then into other areas of the business,” said Musleh in a video interview (click below to view).

While the lightweight, vegan certified, locally sourced and reusable cotton shopping bags, which feature sustainable ink and zero plastic, were introduced into its Day2Day stores, the same medium won’t necessarily be adopted for other QDF shops across at Hamad International Airport.

‘Driving the agenda’

“On this particular project, cotton was the perfect material for Day2Day,” continued Musleh. “Sustainability is a big subject with QDF at the moment and we will continue to drive this agenda as it’s very important, not only for us but the industry.”

Musleh pointed out that the travel retailer needs to become better at speaking about its own sustainable achievements, from utilising recyclable materials and water refill stations, to the sale of aluminium bottles.

Watch the full video interview below, or access the  Sustainability Issue by clicking here.

To stay up to date with all the action from TR Sustainability Week, visit TRBusiness.com or click here.