Thursday 29 July 2021

Plastic-free sandwich packaging to be trialled in UK stores

UK food manufacturer Greencore has partnered with the Co-op and Sainsbury’s to trial fully recyclable sandwich packaging.

The packaging has been developed alongside ProAmpac and Greencore claims it is made from entirely paper-based material and is plastic fibre-free.

The plastic film used on sandwich packets will be replaced with a paper equivalent.

Greencore estimates that 600 million pre-packed sandwiches are consumed in the UK every year and if plastic-free packaging becomes the industry standard, reductions in plastic waste could be ‘immense’.

The packaging will be trialled later this year in September.

Claire Hughes, Director of Product Packaging and Innovation at Sainsbury’s, commented: “We are committed to making recycling easier for our customers, while reducing our use of plastic packaging by 50% by 2025 and working collaboratively with our suppliers is key to achieving our targets and driving change.

“We are pleased to be trialling this innovative new sandwich packaging with Greencore and helping our customers reduce plastic when they shop with us.”