Iceland has launched what it claims is an industry-leading trial that will see the retailer reduce its plastic packaging by 93% across a range of fresh produce.
The trial in 33 of Iceland’s stores across London and the South East offers customers the opportunity to buy 38 fresh fruit and vegetable lines in newly developed packaging solutions that are either plastic-free or have a significantly reduced plastic content. Iceland is expecting the trial alone to remove seven tonnes of plastic from its operations.
The trial is the latest in a series of initiatives launched by the retailer, which has committed to remove plastic from all of its own label products by the end of 2023.
Richard Walker, Managing Director at Iceland, commented: “We understand that consumers are particularly aware of the amount of plastic being used to package produce across the industry and we’ve been working hard to develop user-friendly, sustainable alternatives.
“This trial is the largest ever of its kind and we’re excited to see how customers respond to the range of solutions provided. The trial is truly scalable, and our findings will help to further define our strategy for eliminating plastic across our produce offering.”
The retailer stressed that customers will not have to pay a premium for the plastic-free or reduced plastic products, with prices remain the same as before.
The initiative will also see the rollout in March of new fixtures for bananas, a third iteration of the first trial for plastic-free bananas which initially proved to be unsuccessful. Iceland stopped the trial of paper band packaging in early 2019 when the banded product was shown to increase food waste in its stores.
New fixtures were then successfully trialled, with Iceland highlighting how it takes a “trial and error” approach to the plastics issue.
“When we made our industry-leading commitment to remove plastic from our own label products, we knew we would encounter obstacles along the way, including unsuccessful launches,” said Walker.
“We continue to be transparent with our customers about our successes and learnings, and bring them along on the journey as we use their feedback to improve and innovate.”
NAM Implications:
- Iceland’s transparent ‘trial & error’ approach is bound to resonate with consumers…
- …causing other retailers follow…
- …or explain why not.
