Sainsbury’s cuts plastic and become the first major retailer to reduce plastic packaging on their fresh flowers.
In a 12 week trial running across 167 stores nationwide Sainsbury’s will package more than one million fresh bouquets of flowers in recyclable paper and sealed with recyclable paper tape. The goal of the trial is to determine whether customer demand and experience of suppliers can manage the transition over a long term basis,
How Are They Removing Plastic?
- To save over 10 tonnes of plastic than one million bunches and bouquets will use:
- Recycled paper packaging in place of plastic sleeves
- Paper tape in place of sticky tape
It forms part of the British retailer’s commitment to reduce plastics by 50 per cent by 2025, across its food operations.
Quoted from Judith Batchelar, director of Sainsbury’s “We are proud to be the first retailer to reduce fresh floral plastics on a significant scale, across 167 of our stores. Our customers have made it clear that they want us to reduce plastic packaging – developing a more sustainable solution to minimise plastic on fresh flowers is a further step in the right direction.Removing Plastic Bags
To achieve this commitment, other developments over the coming weeks include the removal of plastic bags from the bakery, and the removal of plastic bags from fresh produce.
From the 30th September all plastic bags for loose vegetables and fruit will be removed from online grocery deliveries a move which is set to save 180 tonnes of plastic.
Shoppers will need to bring in their own containers or buy a reusable bags charged at 30p.The change will apply in all convenience stores and about 500 supermarkets with more to follow.
Sainsbury’s isn’t the only supermarket implementing sustainability measures as last month Waitrose revealed it would trial a “bring your own” scheme in one of it’s London stores to encourage customers to buy and refill produce.
The supermarket giant will begin selling items such as cereals and pasta in large dispensers as part of the concept, which it hopes will effectively reduce waste from plastic packaging.
If you’re a business looking for help with your summer event waste management, don’t hesitate to get in touch with North West Waste to learn more about what we do.
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