British supermarket chain Waitrose is redesigning the packaging for its own Essential product range, which is relaunching this month. The company says that these changes should save many metric tons of plastic, glass, and other materials annually.
Waitrose’s Essential store brand includes more than 200 products across categories such as pantry, bakery, personal care, beauty, frozen food, and dairy. During the line’s relaunch, Waitrose says that they’re checking to make sure the products in the range meet the retailer’s goal of making sure all its own-brand packaging is widely recyclable, reusable or compostable at home by 2023.
According to the retailer, packaging changes in the Essential range include:
- Moving from glass jars to steel cans for Essential olives, saving 92 metric tons of glass packaging a year.
- Removing zip seals from all Essential dried fruit bags saved 2 metric tons of plastic a year.
- Switching the Essential chilled breads packaging material to save nearly 1.5 metric tons annually.
- Removing the plastic dust guard from the opening of Essential tissue boxes saved just over 2.75 metric tons of plastic a year.
- Switching to improved, fully-recyclable bags for the whole Essential frozen fruit range, saving nearly 1 metric ton every year.
Source: Environmental Leader
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