M&S rolls-out widely recyclable vine tomatoes packaging

M&S has announced a further move to make its grocery products more sustainable with the introduction of new widely recyclable packaging for its British Collection vine tomatoes.

The new packaging replaces a hard to recycle plastic sleeve with recyclable cardboard and a small amount of plastic film; just enough to preserve the freshness of the tomatoes and still enable the pack to be recycled as cardboard in a household recycling bin.

Three on the vine tomato varieties, Piccolo, Pomodolci and Capella will be available in the new packaging, available across all M&S stores and via Ocado as of now.

Developed with Leicester-based The Reflex Packaging Group and inspired by traditional sandwich packaging, the design is part of M&S’ commitment for all food packaging to be widely recyclable by 2025.

The UK retailer has also pledged to remove 1bn units of plastic food packaging by 2027. The new tomato packaging design has 95% less plastic, estimated to remove 8m units by the end of the year. It was only earlier this month M&S M&S said it is removing best before dates from a range of fresh produce to reduce in-store and household food waste.

The new design features in M&S’ Fresh Market Update campaign showcasing how one of the retailer’s British Select Farmers delivers its popular sweet rosso tomatoes.

Last year, M&S also introduced widely recyclable packaging for its Mandagold tangerines, removing approximately 748,000 pieces of plastic, with more citrus lines, including Blood Oranges, available in the earth packaging later this year.

Andrew Clappen, technical director at M&S Food, said the knowledge that its customers are deeply concerned about the environment means they rightly expect us to make packaging as sustainable as possible.

“That’s why we’re exploring recyclable packaging alternatives for our products, which also help us to meet our plastic reduction targets,” he said. “We want our customers to shop with confidence knowing that the trusted value M&S is famous for means not only delicious, great value and quality produce but a more sustainable choice.”

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