Sainsbury’s makes major change to popular product in 77 UK stores

Sainsbury’s, a major supermarket chain, has made significant changes to the popular fruit’s packaging. The green, creamy fruit no longer comes packaged in plastic when you’re trying to make avocado toast or a healthy breakfast bowl.

As of this month, Sainsbury’s is introducing paper packaging across its own-brand Ripe &amp, Ready Avocados twin pack. Though currently being trialled across just 77 supermarkets, once it achieves full roll-out, the chain claims it will save 20.2 million pieces of plastic a year. The new recyclable packaging is completely recyclable and much more environmentally friendly by combining bamboo and paper netting.

One of the many actions we are taking to fulfill our commitment to a greener future is the switch to paper packaging across our Ripe &amp, Ready Avocados twin pack, according to Claire Hughes, Sainsbury’s Director of Product and Innovation. We’re excited for our customers to try out the new packaging in-store, and this initiative is a result of our ongoing efforts to create more sustainable and creative packaging solutions.

Sainsbury’s is also incentivising customers by making the avocados available on Nectar Prices, for £1.35 in supermarkets and online. Customers of Nectar will save 30p up until January 25th thanks to this, compared to the £1.65 cost without Nectar.

The second-largest supermarket chain in the UK has taken several steps to lessen its carbon footprint. Sainsbury’s switched from plastic to cardboard punnets for a wide range of its Taste the Difference berries and cherries last year, which will save the company over 160 tons of plastic annually. They also made the switch to cardboard mushroom punnets, which saves around 775 tons of plastic annually.

UK supermarkets have been criticized for using plastic in their products for a number of years. In fact, according to a recent analysis, British supermarkets produce 29.8 billion tonnes of avoidable plastic waste each year, compared to 70% of all food products stocked with the nonrenewable material.

Plastic use has long been a significant contributor to climate change. Produced using planet-heating fuels like coal, oil and gas, plastic is designed to be light, durable and multifunctional. An unfortunate consequence of this, however, is that plastic also biodegrades incredibly slowly, taking anywhere from 20 to 500 years to break down.

Source: Mirror