Skip to main content

Waitrose hails success of black plastic reduction initiative

| Going green

Waitrose & Partners has hit its target to remove black plastic from hundreds of products as part of its overall aim to eradicate the material from all its own label products.

The retailer has now removed the hard-to-recycle black plastic on its fresh meat, fish, poultry, fruit and veg – amounting to a reduction of over 1,300 tonnes of black plastic per annum.

The progress means the retailer is more than half-way to achieving its goal to remove black plastic on all its own label products by the end of 2019.

Tor Harris, Head of CSR, Health & Agriculture for Waitrose & Partners, said: “Eliminating black plastic is a priority for us. While removing it we have also taken the opportunity to reduce the amount of plastic of any colour by removing trays from fruit and veg like apples, broccoli and pak choi.

“We are making progress all the time and are determined to maintain our momentum which is why we’re now looking at ready meals and other products so we can achieve our aim of removing all black plastic from our own-label products by the end of 2019.”

A recent example of packaging innovation to eradicate the use of black plastic include the retailer’s Duchy organic tomato packaging which partly uses punnets made from tomato vines, which would otherwise have gone to waste, with recycled cardboard.

waitrose-non-plastic-punnet


Related Articles

Holiday must-have: New Kasi Kruza ride-on hits ...

South African toy manufacturer Hope Sonic’s brand-new Kasi Kruza ride-on motorbike, made almost entirely from recycled materials, is now available in Shoprite supermarkets nationwide. 

‘We can’t afford to wait’ – Shoprite Group inve...

The Shoprite Group has almost doubled the amount of renewable energy used in its operations to 103 234MWh (FY 2022: 54 138 MWh) over the past year.

SA consumers prefer paper packaging, want more ...

By: Retail Brief Africa The Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) enlisted South Africa as one of the 16 countries that participated in this year’s global ‘Trend Tracker Survey’. 

How to get R2,400 in Makro vouchers for electri...

By Hanno Labuschagne - MyBroadBand The E-Waste Recycling Authority (ERA) will be handing out vouchers on the spot for e-waste dropped off at Makro stores over the next two weekends.

Be water wise on your garden amidst water restr...

As South Africa faces water challenges brought on by seasonal climate changes - Rand Water and the South African Green Industries Council have called on industries and consumers to use water sparingly this season - climate change is affecting the ...