Credit: Sainsbury's
Changes expected to slash the food retailer's plastic packaging by almost 700 tonnes a year
Sainsbury's has served up a flurry of changes to its own-brand fish and chicken packaging in the UK, in a move it expects to save almost 700 tonnes of plastic a year.
Announced today, the "UK retailer first" will see the supermarket giant ditch plastic in favour of pulp cardboard for its salmon fillet trays, in a move expected to use 70 per cent less plastic packaging for the product, saving around 346 tonnes of plastic a year - roughly the same weight as 100 elephants.
The new cardboard trays are to be made from sugarcane pulp lined with polyethylene film, and are "easily recyclable", according to Sainsbury's.
In addition, the retailer is introducing the cardboard trays across its 'Taste the Difference' and 'by Sainsbury's' breaded chicken lines, a switch it calculates could save 300 tonnes of plastic a year.
The same change is set to be made to its 'Taste the Difference' breaded fish fillets, which Sainsbury's said would save another 48 tonnes of plastic a year.
In total, it means the changes announced today amount to an expected plastic saving of 694 tonnes a year, the retailer said.
Claire Hughes, director of product and innovation at Sainsbury's, said the retailer's own-brand salmon line was one of its most popular fish products, which made slashing plastic packaging for the product a particular priority.
"We are now the first retailer to make the move to have recycled pulp card trays across all our by Sainsbury's and 'Taste the Difference' salmon products, enabling a whopping 70 per cent plastic reduction," she said. "Together with changes to our breaded fish and chicken packaging, we are set to save 694 tonnes of plastic a year - a significant step towards our plastic reduction goals."
The introduction of the improved packaging is one in a series of measures by the supermarket to reduce its plastic. Sainsbury's recently launched its 'Good to Know' logo to help customers find products which are more sustainable, including those with reduce plastic packaging.
It also recently introduced new cardboard trays to replace plastic trays in its ‘by Sainsbury's' steak range, as well as what it hailed as its "greatest standalone plastics removal" when it swapped plastic punnets for cardboard in all its own brand mushrooms earlier this year, saving 775 tonnes of plastic a year.
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