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Sainsbury’s has announced it will be removing 18.5 million plastic straws from its own brand lunchbox juice cartons from circulation each year, equating to a 6.6 tonne plastic reduction.
The announcement is the latest step by the retailer which is part of its ongoing commitment to reduce its use of plastic packaging by 50% by 2025.
The change will see all twelve products in Sainsbury’s own brand lunchbox juice carton range switch to widely recyclable paper straws.
The newly packaged products will land in stores this week and will be available in all stores and online by mid-April, offering customers an eco-friendlier option.
Since pledging to halve its use of plastic packaging by 2025 and become Net Zero in its operations by 2040, Sainsbury’s has removed thousands of tonnes of plastic across the business.
This included eliminating 290 million loose produce plastic bags, rigid plastic trays, plastic overlids from cream pots (114 tonnes), zip removal on frozen fruit bags (28 tonnes) along with removing and replacing difficult to recycle black plastic, PVC and Polystyrene from own brand packaging (6,400 tonnes).
Claire Hughes, director of product and innovation at Sainsbury’s, said: “Removing 18.5 million straws from circulation each year is a huge achievement and brings us closer to our goal.
“Looking forward, we will continue to work closely with our suppliers, manufacturers, customers and other retailers to reduce the amount of single use plastic across the supply chain, whilst also investing in research and development of materials and technologies.”
