World’s 3rd-Largest Grocery Chain Eliminates 20 Million Single-Use Plastic Wrappings From Christmas Goodies

Tesco, the world’s third-largest grocery chain, has announced that as millions of Yule-tide products appear on its shelves, they do so without 20 million individual pieces of what would have been single-use plastic.

the always-proud-to-help-the-environment Grocer, who adopted the five-cent tax on bags and places carbon footprint labels on his products, switched to recycled cardboard to pack Christmas lights, cookies, puddings, cards and more.

This is due in part to new regulations that will come into force in 2022 that taxes plastic packaging that does not include at least 30% of recycled material.

“It is a top priority for us to eliminate and reduce the amount of plastic in our stores to a minimum and make sure that everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment; Christmas is no exception and we want to do our bit to help customers have more sustainable celebrations, ”said Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s quality director at a statement.

With a little alliteration, it’s easy to see how they reached this 20 million-piece milestone, as the quality department’s “4R” motto is “Take it away where we can. Reduce where we cannot. Reuse more. Recycle what’s left. “

Simple decisions, such as removing the plastic coating around a box of Christmas puddings, saved 1.78 million pieces of plastic, while removing components from the plastic packaging of its private label cookies left its operations 14 million pieces. lighter plastic.

RELATED: America’s largest supermarket chain says goodbye to single-use plastic bags

In Tesco Holiday Report 2020, the British grocer noted that they entered the holiday season with a different attitude and that the surveys they conducted helped guide their decisions.

“More than two-thirds of Britons expect world events to impact their celebrations, turning the nation back to the festive fundamentals of family, friends and tradition,” says the opener of the report who found that 50% of the 2,011 people surveyed said they had started to reuse Christmas decorations.

PLUS: UK supermarket chain offers free car charging network to electric vehicle owners while they shop

It also found that a third of the participants said they will only buy loose fruits and vegetables to reduce plastic packaging, and a quarter will reuse wrapping paper.

SHARE the good news of the Christmas tide with friends on social media …