Waitrose is relaunching its Italian ready meal range in a new fiber-based tray that can be recycled or composted at home.
The new trays, called Fresh, are manufactured by the food packaging specialist Huhtamaki and are made using wood fiber that comes from sustainable Nordic forests.
Waitrose been testing the trays since May last year as part of its pledge to phase out hard-to-recycle black plastic from its own label packaging by the end of 2019. It also recently brought forward its target to make all its own label packaging recyclable, reusable or home compostable from 2025 to 2023.
Nikki Grainge, Packaging Development Manager at Waitrose, stated that the new trays had received positive feedback from its customers. “Now, with the current launch on Italian range moving to the new tray, we’ll be able to move nearly 9 million meals out of black plastic,” she said.
Earlier this week, Morrisons announced that its was rolling out plastic-free fruit and vegetable areas to 60 of its stores this year following the success of trials. By allowing customers to buy produce loose or put them in recyclable paper bags, the retailer expects to save three tonnes of plastic a week.
