Retail

All that glitters: UK retailers shift away from plastic Christmas


UK retailers and supermarkets have stepped up efforts to take plastic out of packaging for the festive season, boasting of a flurry of eco-friendly wrapping for Christmas puddings, desserts, party foods and chocolates, and with many greetings cards and crackers now free of glitter.

Tesco alone has removed more than 20m pieces of single-use plastic from its Christmas range this year – including crackers, lights, cards and the packaging for puddings – as part of a national drive to reduce pollution from single use plastics.

Of its rivals, the frozen food specialist Iceland is offering customers a “plastic-free Christmas” for the second year running, with 24 products in its festive range now in eco-friendly packaging. Up from 18 last year, the range includes more party food, desserts, a vegan wellington and a Christmas cake without the traditional protective plastic topper. For Marks & Spencer, this is the first Christmas that it is not using black plastic for festive puddings as part of its goal to ensure all of its packaging is recyclable by 2022.

The industry moves came amid growing concerns about the environmental impact of the global single-use plastic binge. Retailers face a regulatory crackdown in 2022 with a new tax on plastic packaging that fails to meet a minimum threshold of at least 30% recycled content.

However, campaigners say the plastic tide hasn’t been fully turned and that the drive to reduce plastics has stalled.

A recent report, for example, from a voluntary UK plastics pact reveals that between 2018 and 2019 its members – including retailers – reduced the number of plastic items deemed problematic or unnecessary by 40%. Worryingly, the proportion of recyclable packaging being placed on the market has remained virtually static, at 64% compared with 63% a year earlier. The new figures also failed to take account of the setbacks caused by coronavirus and fears of contamination.

The Cadbury owner Mondelez, meanwhile, has scrapped plastic trays from its entire range of adult chocolate selection boxes in the UK, in a swap it said would remove 1.1m plastic trays – equivalent to 33 tonnes less plastic used this Christmas. The plastic trays are being replaced with with cardboard in brands including Classic Collection, Darkmilk, Cadbury Oreo, Bourneville and Toblerone.

Nina Schrank, a plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “These Christmas announcements are hard to judge and compare against each other. Cutting plastic from crackers, for example, and glitter from wrapping paper are all important steps in the crackdown on plastic and also serve to challenge how we view it as a material. On the one hand, commitments and work to eradicate plastics at what can be a particularly wasteful time of year sends an important message. On the other hand, what about the aisles and aisles of plastic packaging lining shelves all year round?”

Food and drink companies are increasingly ditching plastic packaging in favour of new options. The alcohol-free spirit Seedlip, for example, has introduced a new gift box made of mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms.

Ben Branson, Seedlip’s founder, said: “Mycelium is an organic alternative to cardboard or polystyrene which decomposes in 40 days. Unlike plastic, which makes up 12% of global waste, or paper and cardboard, which is responsible for 17%, mycelium is 100% home-compostable, meaning it does not contribute to the growing plastic crisis that is leaving oceans polluted and landfills overflowing.”

The high street beauty chain Lush is also – for the first time – using reusable trays made from mycelium, along with soap dishes crafted from 80% recycled clay and its ever-expanding range of knot wraps, which are colourful fabric pieces which can be re-used many times.

The national organic fruit and veg box service Riverford will this month complete a two-year mission to switch packaging – where it is used – to a home-compostable format. The company said this followed “an extensive process of research and an investment of around £300k a year, which will be absorbed by the company and not be passed on to the customer”.

Customers who cannot compost their packaging at home can leave it out for Riverford to collect. The founder Guy Singh-Watson will then compost it on his farm in Devon, where it will ultimately end up fertilising the next batch of organic vegetables.



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