Tesco 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 plastic pollution.
The UK’s largest supermarket said its own-label crackers were plastic-free for the first time – cutting more than 14m pieces from the seasonal range – while a layer of plastic had been removed from packaging on Christmas puddings and sponges, saving 1.78m pieces of plastic.
The retailer has also eliminated glitter in all its single-use products and packaging, which means wrapping paper, gift bags, cards and crackers are all now widely recyclable.
Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s quality director, said: “It is an absolute priority of ours to remove and reduce the amount of plastic in our stores to the minimum and ensure everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment. Christmas time is no exception and we want to do our bit to help customers have more sustainable celebrations.”
The move comes 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.
Nina Schrank, a plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “This is great news from Tesco, and it’s an important commitment given the damage we all know that glitter and throwaway plastic is doing to our marine environment. Now we want to see Tesco go even further and show even greater ambition, by setting market-leading targets for reuse and refill systems both in store and online across as much of their range as possible.”
Asda recently launched its first sustainable Christmas range – which it says will save 66 tonnes of plastic this year – while Morrisons has removed glitter from all of its own-brand ranges including cards, crackers, wrapping paper, present bags, flowers, plants and wreaths.
John Lewis and Waitrose have also this year stopped selling Christmas crackers containing plastic toys and puzzles.
Earlier this month the frozen food specialist Iceland launched its “plastic-free Christmas range”, consisting of 18 products using only alternative packaging and including a Christmas cake with no plastic “topper” inside the box. 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.
