Marks and Spencer trials plastic-free packaging

Marks and Spencer will trial plastic-free packaging in a bid to curb the growing plastic pollution in the UK.

The UK supermarket are launching over 90 lines of loose fruit and vegetables to reduce the amount of plastic that they use. The trial will launch in the Tolworth branch and will start from January.

Louise Nicholls, Head of Food Sustainability, said: “We’re proud to launch a series of market-leading initiatives to help our customers take home less plastic. We know our customers want to play their part in cutting out plastic, while as a business our goal is to become zero-waste by 2025. That’s why we’re working hard to reduce the amount of plastic packaging we use without compromising on food quality and contributing to waste.”

The trial will start in Tolworth but Marks and Spenser plan to expand across other stores to increase their impact on the reduction of single-use plastic.

This initiative will help towards Marks and Spencer’s goal to become a zero-waste business by 2025. The retailer has already phased out 75 million pieces of plastic cutlery given out in its stores.

Elena Polisano, ocean plastics campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “Supermarkets cutting the amount of plastic they produce is the best thing they can do to help stem the plastic tide. Eliminating unnecessary plastics, such as those used for fruit and vegetables, is a great place to start. M&S were ranked fourth out of the ten biggest supermarkets when Greenpeace assessed their plans to tackle plastic waste, so it’s encouraging that M&S is now being more ambitious when it comes to reducing its plastic footprint. M&S must now go further and introduce plastic-free fruit and vegetable lines in all stores nationwide, and we urge other supermarkets to follow suit.”

16 January 2019

Rachel Cooper