— By Plasteurope.com staff —

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s (London; www.sainsburys.co.uk) has said it will commit to halve its plastic packaging by 2025. It is the first major retailer to make a pledge of this scale.

The company intends to switch all its doughnuts and pastries from clam-shell packaging to cardboard and paper, leading to an annual plastic reduction of 414 t, or 90%. In addition, in-store bakery bread will be packaged using recyclable paper bags with a plastic window, saving around 152 t of plastic a year, according to Sainsbury’s.

The store has said that the window on the new packaging can be easily removed from the paper products and recycled at any front-of-store recycling points at Sainsbury’s supermarkets. The cardboard and paper can be recycled at home in kerbside collection. 

Related: UK food retail giant urges customers to play their part in waste reduction

Sainsbury’s is not a new player on the field of plastic reduction. In 2021, the company rolled out a new recycling system at 520 of its 600 supermarkets, allowing customers to recycle all flexible plastic packaging. In 2023, it announced it would save 450 t of plastic a year − 55% less plastic − by retailing all its beef mince products in vacuum packaging. And earlier this year, Sainsbury’s launched its Good to Know logo to help customers find products that are more sustainable, including those with reduced plastic packaging.

According to the supermarket chain, customers can expect to see the new changes to pastry and bread packaging in all stores over the coming months.