Fish and chicken packaging revamp reduces plastic waste by almost 700 tonnes at Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s says it is pioneering plastic reduction as it becomes the first retailer to introduce pulp trays for all of its salmon and trout products, which use 70% less plastic and can be recycled at home.

Sainsbury’s is introducing a number of packaging changes across its own-brand chicken and fish lines, with the new packaging set to save 694 tonnes of plastic a year – the weight of almost 100 elephants. A male African elephant can weigh up to seven tonnes.

All own-brand salmon fillet trays are switching from pulp cardboard instead of plastic, which will result in 70% less plastic, saving 346 tonnes of plastic a year.

Alongside this, Sainsbury’s is rolling out cardboard trays across its Taste the Difference and by Sainsbury’s breaded chicken lines, set to save 300 tonnes of plastic a year. The retailer is also making the same changes to its Taste the Difference breaded fish fillets, set to save 48 tonnes of plastic a year.

The new packaging will be rolling out throughout the summer across many seasonal chicken favourites.

The pulp cardboard trays from all salmon lines and cardboard trays across breaded chicken and fish are easily recyclable, helping customers to reduce their household waste by placing the packaging in kerbside recycling at home. The tray can be recycled at home. The film packaging can be recycled at one of Sainsbury’s front-of-store flexible plastics recycling points (available in all Sainsbury’s UK supermarkets)

Claire Hughes, director of product and innovation at Sainsbury’s, noted that with salmon being one of the most popular fish, it was a priority to reduce the plastic on the packaging.

“We are now the first retailer to make the move to have recycled pulp card trays across all our bySainsbury’s and Taste the Difference salmon products, enabling a whopping 70% plastic reduction,” Hughes added. “Together with changes to our breaded fish and chicken packaging, we are set to save 694 tonnes of plastic a year – a significant step towards our plastic reduction goals.”

Sainsbury’s recently launched its ‘Good to Know’ logo to help customers find products that are more sustainable, including those with reduced plastic packaging. The new logo is aimed to help customers understand the retailer’s work around sustainability and its work towards its Plan for Better ambitions. Customers will be able to find the ‘Good to Know’ logo on the latest packaging across its salmon products.

The announcements are the latest in a string of changes made by the retailer as part of its commitment to reduce its own-brand plastic packaging, such as the by Sainsbury’s plastic steak trays being replaced with cardboard alternatives. Additionally, Sainsbury’s recently made its greatest standalone plastics removal, by swapping plastic punnets for cardboard for all its own-brand mushrooms, saving over 775 tonnes of plastic a year.

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