Iceland chain to go plastic free 16 January 2018
Supermarket chain Iceland has said it will eliminate or drastically reduce plastic packaging of all its own–label products by the end of 2023
(via BBC News)
Iceland says the move will affect more than a thousand own–label products.
New ranges will be packaged using a paper–based tray, rather than plastic.
It follows recent outcries over the packaging of cauliflower “steaks” and coconuts, and Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet programme, which showed vivid images of plastic pollution.
Prime Minister Theresa May has called plastic waste “one of the great environmental scourges of our time”.
The UK uses 3.7 million tonnes of plastic a year, according to trade organisation Plastics Europe, and recent changes in China have made it more difficult to process.
Nigel Broadhurst, joint managing director of Iceland, explained the typical ready meal was packaged in a particularly bad way.
“It is currently in a black plastic tray. That black plastic is the worst possible option in terms of toxins going into the ground and the ability to recycle that product,” Mr Broadhurst said.
