UK retailer Waitrose & Partners is relaunching its food-sharing platters with a significant reduction in packaging with the expectation that office working and social gatherings are to return soon.
The retailer's sharing sandwiches, rolls, and wraps across ten SKUs will now contain 65% less packaging overall, saving 30 tonnes of single-use plastic and card a year.
Sharing Platters
The retailer has also redesigned the packaging and it now comes without an outer case or lid, which means the sandwiches and wraps are 'ready to serve', making sharing food easier for picnics and parties.
The platters now have a cardboard base, saving 60% of single-use plastic on sandwiches and 40% single-use plastic on wraps. The new boxes and film are fully recyclable.
Rebecca Neale, partner and product developer, Food to Go, Waitrose, said, "It was really important to relaunch our sandwich platters with less packaging as they've traditionally been reliant on plastic - and we want to offer a more sustainable alternative as summer approaches and we all entertain again."
A spike in sales of finger sandwiches was observed around Mother's Day this year, suggesting that families were enjoying afternoon teas together.
Single-Use Plastic
In March, Waitrose announced plans to no longer sell children's magazines containing disposable toys in an effort to reduce single-use plastic.
The retailer recently ranked first in Greenpeace’s annual league table, for the second year in a row, which looks at how supermarkets are reducing the presence of single-use plastics in stores.
Neale added, "It’s our priority to reduce single-use plastic wherever we can as we approach our target of making all own-label packaging widely recycled, reusable, or home compostable by 2023.”
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Conor Farrelly. For more Packaging news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
