Sainsbury’s has made changes to several of its in-store bakery products as it aims to reduce plastic waste.
All doughnuts and pastries previously in plastic clam-shell style packaging are switching to cardboard and paper packaging – a 90% plastic reduction – which will reduce plastic packaging by 414 tonnes annually. Doughnuts are switching to card boxes with a small window and twin-pack pastries, as well as croissants and cinnamon swirls, are moving to paper bags*.
In-store bakery bread will see up to a 60% reduction in plastic through the removal of full plastic bags across loaves, baguettes and batons**. These have been replaced with recyclable paper bags with a plastic window, saving around 152 tonnes of plastic a year. Customers can currently expect to see the changes in all stores over the coming months.
The window on the new packaging can be easily separated from the card box and paper bag and recycled at any front-of-store recycling points at Sainsbury’s supermarkets. The card and paper can be recycled at home in kerbside recycling.
These are the latest in a string of changes made by the retailer on packaging, with its most recent biggest single plastics removal on mushroom punnets, saving around 775 tonnes of plastic annually. Sainsbury’s was also the first UK retailer to switch all its kitchen and toilet roll packaging from plastic to paper, saving over 485 tonnes of plastic a year.
Sainsbury’s recently launched its ‘Good to Know’ logo to help customers find products that are more sustainable, such as those with reduced plastic packaging. The new logo is aimed to raise awareness and make it easier for customers to understand Sainsbury’s work to support sustainability, animal welfare and communities.
