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Photo: Courtesy Wales Online
Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl and Sainsbury's rules on plastic bags and packaging
UNITED KINGDOM
Tuesday, April 13, 2021, 07:10 (GMT + 9)
From now on, you will only be able to buy a paper bag in Morrisons
Shoppers who visit the supermarket chain Morrisons will no longer be able to pick up a plastic bag in their local store.
Morrisons will become the first UK supermarket to completely remove plastic carrier bags, including bags for life, from its shops.
Reusable paper bags have been available in the store for some time, but now they will be the only bag available for customers following a trial in just eight stores doing the same. It is set to save 3,200 tonnes of plastic every year.
The removal of the Morrisons ‘bags for life’ will be phased and will begin in Scotland this month, followed by England and Wales over the course of the next year, according to the chain.
Reusable paper bags | Photo: Morrisons
Other supermarkets are also making efforts to reduce their reliance on plastic bags and packaging. We have taken a look at the major supermarket's rules on plastic bags and packaging.
Morrisons
Morrisons is the first supermarket to completely ban plastic bags and customers will instead be able to purchase a paper bag for 30p.
Paper bags will be available alongside other reusable options including string, jute, cotton and reusable woven bags, priced between 75p and £2.50. Alternatively, customers can being their own carrier bags.
Morrisons has also promised it will reduce its branded plastic packaging by 50% by 2025, and it will only use 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable plastic by that same year. It also promises that by 2025, an average of 30% of its plastic packaging will be recycled.
In the year 2019/2020, the supermarket made a 9.6% reduction in its own brand plastic packaging. In that same year, 83% of the own brand plastic packaging was recyclable.
Paper bags | Photo: Morrisons
It also sold one million fewer plastic bags each week compared with the previous year.
The supermarket does not use polystyrene in any of is own-brand food and drink products and stopped using black plastic in 2019.
It is also completely removing plastic packaging from some fruit and veg such as cucumbers, asparagus and rhubarb.
Other plastic rules they follow include not stocking plastic cotton buds or boxed plastic straws, only paper ones.
Little stickers have been removed from fresh fruit and veg were identifiable and labels on meat have been changed from plastic to paper.
Tesco
Tesco has also made changes to its plastic bags policy this week. It previously banned using plastic bags or tray liners in its deliveries but brought them back during the coronavirus pandemic.
 From April 19, plastic bags will not be available with online orders. The reintroduction of bagless deliveries has been influenced by concerns over the environment, with the supermarket commenting that is has "an important role to play in reducing plastic consumption".
In some situations, Tesco delivery drivers are permitted to bring shopping inside (for the elderly, disabled or vulnerable) but Tesco recommends those who can't have their shopping brought inside have their own bags or boxes "ready at the door to pack into," further encouraging carrying any bulky items in separately.
Last year, the supermarket chain announced it would ban shrink-wrapped multi-packs across its own-branded tinned food, which would remove 250 million tonnes of plastic a year.
It applies to all canned food, including baked beans, sweetcorn, soup and tinned tomatoes.
More than 83% of the supermarkets own brand products are recyclable.
Asda
Asda is among the major supermarkets to remove plastic bags from the fresh produce aisles in a move it said would save more than 100 million pieces of plastic a year.
Asda also announced it would remove plastic punnets from conference pears, saving an additional 170 tonnes of plastic each year.
They have also removed their own brand plastic cotton buds for alternative ones as well as a number of alternative plastic packaging removals and swaps.
One of the key things the supermarkets did was removing single-use 5p carrier bags, and they were the first to do so.
Aldi
Last month discount supermarket chain Aldi announced a brand new plastic ban coming into all of its UK stores.
In February, it banned plastic egg packaging and it has now announced it will remove plastic straws from its own brand drinks.
Photo: ALDI
Instead, all of these drinks now come with a paper straw – saving more than 100 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic each year.
The ban will remove 70 million plastic straws from circulation – equating to more than 100 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic each year.
It has also moved in line with Tesco and replaced plastic shrink wrap multipack cans with cardboard.
Aldi is on track to have all product packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by the end of 2025.
Last year, Aldi scrapped the use of plastic bags for fruit and veg and instead introduced a 25p reusable one made of recycled bottles.
Lidl
In 2019, Lidl became the first UK supermarket to introduce the plastic free fruit and veg bags.
It also removed its 5p single-use bags from sale in 2017 which then led them to trial removing 9p bags for life in Wales.
They no longer use black plastic in their products either and have set targets to reduce own label plastic and packaging by 2025.
Photo: Lidl
Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's has also removed plastic bags from its online deliveries as well as banning plastic straws in its own brand drinks. This will remove a total of 18.5 million plastic straws from circulation each year.
Reusable bags have been launched in the fruit and veg aisles while plastic packaging has been removed from some items.
They have also removed plastic tampon applicators (three tonnes), plastic sleeves from clothing (1,000 tonnes), plastic stems from cotton buds (50 tonnes) and some plastic trays from fruit and veg.
Author: Lidia Stephens / Wales Online
editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media
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