Tesco is continuing its sustainability drive by becoming the first major retailer in the UK to remove soft plastic rings and shrink wrap packaging from all beers and ciders in its stores.
The move is being supported by many of the leading drinks manufacturers and will result in 50 million fewer pieces of unrecycled plastic being produced each year.
Tesco will this month stop taking deliveries of beers and ciders that are held together by soft plastic rings and shrink wraps. It expects to sell through the last remaining stock using such packaging in the coming weeks.
All beer and cider brands sold in Tesco will now have use materials for multipacks such as cardboard sleeves, boxes, or rigid plastic that can be easily recycled via kerbside collections. For example, Heineken has stopped using plastic rings in favour of a cardboard alternative called the ‘Green Grip’.
Tesco Quality Director Sarah Bradbury said: “We are working hand in hand with some of the world’s biggest brands to tackle the problem of unnecessary plastic. Our mission is to remove, reduce, reuse and recycle so we use as little material as possible and ensure that all the packaging in our stores can be easily recycled.”
Tesco launched its 4R (Remove, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) strategy in 2019 in a bid to remove excess and non-recyclable material from its business and recycle the rest. As a part of this work, the retailer has already hit its target of removing a billion pieces of plastic including tinned multipacks, lids, and the small bags used to pack loose fruit and veg.
