Friday 11 December 2020

Tesco removes 20m plastic items from Christmas range

Tesco has removed more than 20 million pieces of single-use plastic from its Christmas range, including crackers, lights, cards and puddings, this year.

The supermarket's own-label crackers are plastic-free for the first time – they will include non-plastic presents and are now sold without plastic in cardboard packaging, reducing more than 14 million pieces of plastic.

Around 312,000 Christmas lights will also be sold in recyclable cardboard packaging and packs of Christmas cards are now free from plastic, which helps save 4.6 million pieces of plastic a year.

In addition, a layer of plastic has been removed from Christmas puddings and sponges, reducing 1.78 million pieces of plastic.

The move is part of Tesco's 4Rs packaging strategy – to remove it where it can, reduce it where it can't, reuse more and recycle what's left.

https://twitter.com/tesconews/status/1336691734483505152

Recent research from Tesco found three quarters (74%) of consumers will have sustainability in mind when making purchasing decisions – an increase of 36% year-on-year.

It also found 51% of consumers will reuse old Christmas decorations and around 32% will only buy loose fruit and vegetables to reduce plastic packaging, while nearly a quarter will reuse wrapping paper and 19% will try to be more sustainable by not buying gifts, wrapping or decorations made of plastic.

Tesco Quality Director Sarah Bradbury said: “It is an absolute priority of ours to remove and reduce the amount of plastic in our stores to the minimum and ensure everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment – Christmas time is no exception and we want to do our bit to help customers have more sustainable celebrations.”