Tesco is freeing up lorry space for Christmas by winding toilet rolls more tightly around cardboard tubes, reducing their size.
It has enabled Tesco to replace one of its bulkiest own-brand products, the 24-pack toilet roll, with a new 12-pack of ‘double rolls’ that have twice the number of sheets wound on to them. The new packaging is set to save 67 tonnes of plastic packaging a year, according to the supermarket.
Tesco said it also meant 17 fewer lorries were needed each week to transport the rolls from suppliers to distribution centres – vehicles that could now be deployed delivering other products during the busy Christmas period.
“As well as removing unnecessary plastic, reducing the size of multipacks will free up valuable space in our lorries that can be put to great use this Christmas,” said Tesco buying manager Katie Frost.
Tesco is also planning to shrink its four- and nine-roll packs before the end of the year using the same method, ahead of further roll and pack size reductions in 2022.
“We are looking at a number of ways to use less packaging,” Frost said. “In the last few years, we have cut 6,000 tonnes of packaging from products, including a billion pieces of plastic.”
Last week, The Grocer revealed retailers were set to be told they must ditch plastic packaging from fruit & veg aisles if they are to hit the industry’s plastic reduction goals.
Meanwhile, the food industry’s Plastics Pact pledges are at risk of being “derailed” by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the cost of reformulating packaging, according to Wrap.
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