UK retailer M&S has launched British Collection vine tomatoes in new, widely recyclable packaging, as part of its 'Plan A' target to make 100% of its food packaging recyclable by 2025.
The new packaging replaces hard-to-recycle plastic sleeves with recyclable cardboard and a small amount of plastic film to preserve the tomatoes and still enable the pack to be recycled as cardboard in a household recycling bin, the retailer added.
Recyclable Tomato Packaging
The retailer will offer three vine tomato varieties – Piccolo, Pomodolci, and Capella – in the new packaging across all M&S stores and via Ocado.
The packaging was developed with Leicester-based The Reflex Packaging Group and inspired by traditional sandwich packaging.
The retailer has also pledged to remove one billion units of plastic food packaging by 2027.
The new design features in M&S’ Fresh Market Update campaign showcasing how one of the retailer’s British Select Farmers cultivates its sweet Rosso tomatoes.
Andrew Clappen, technical director at M&S Food, said, "At M&S, we know our customers are deeply concerned about the environment and rightly expect us to make our products 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.
"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," Clappen added.
M&S Sustainable Activities
M&S has rolled out plastic recycling units in over 500 UK stores, enabling customers to drop off items not typically collected by local authorities, such as yoghurt lids and sweet wrappers, including those not bought at M&S.
Recently, the retailer reset its sustainability programme Plan A, to focus on becoming a net zero Scope 3 business across its supply chain and products by 2040 and to support customers to make more sustainable choices.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest packaging and design news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
