Supermarkets are on the verge of eliminating black plastic from their own-label ranges, in a potentially key milestone in the war on plastic.
This week Morrisons announced it had become the first major retailer to remove all black plastic from its own-brand food and drink packaging, in a move that would make 4,000 tonnes of packaging recyclable for the first time.
Currently, tens of thousands of tonnes of black plastic each year end up in landfill or being incinerated, because it contains a carbon pigment that cannot be detected by recycling machines.
However, The Grocer can reveal all other major supermarkets are on course to match Morrisons’ achievement by the end of January next year.
Tesco said it would have removed all black plastic by the end of December and was now “working with branded suppliers to do the same”.
Asda also said it would remove black plastic by the end of 2019. It recently announced it had removed 45 million ready meal trays containing black plastic from its lineup, which it said had alone removed “775 tonnes of previously unrecyclable plastic”.
Sainsbury’s is another supermarket on course to remove black plastic by the end of December, by which time 6,000 tonnes of material will have switched to recyclable alternatives.
Waitrose said it had removed nearly 90% of the 2,291 tonnes of black plastic it uses as of the end of October, and was “well on track” to get rid of it fully by the end of December. The Co-op said the same thing, meaning black plastic will have been removed from over 300 lines.
“We have been making good progress with eliminating black plastic across the board,” said Iceland head of recycling Stuart Lendrum, who said it expected not to be packing any Iceland own-label products in black plastic by the end of January 2020.
M&S is further behind, but said it was on track to remove black plastic before the end of next year. Aldi also has a target of the end of 2020.
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