M&S to cut plastic from fruit and veg packaging

M&S said on Wednesday it will start to sell over 90 lines of loose fruit and vegetables in its latest move to produce sustainable plastic-less packaging.

M&S will trial the new proposals in its Tolworth store in south west London, where it will offer paper bags for the items and scrap the plastic barcode stickers in its aim to reduce around 580 tonnes of plastic in two years.

Furthermore, M&S will hire trained greengrocers to advise customers on how to keep their food fresh for longer and reduce food waste. The grocery store has also removed the best before date from fresh fruit and vegetables as part of the trial.

According to the Guardian's Louise Nichols, the head of food sustainability at M&S, said: “We know our customers want to play their part in cutting out plastic, while as a business our goal is to become zero-waste by 2025.”

She said the trial was “an important milestone in our plastic reduction journey”.

Other grocery stores such as Morrisons also announced similar proposals. Morrisons said in June it would bring back the traditional brown paper bags for fruit and vegetables thus preventing 150m plastic bags from being used a year.

Emma Priestland, plastic campaigner at Friends of the Earth said according to Evening Standard: “Selling more loose fruit and veg is vital to cut down on plastic waste, and something that all supermarkets rapidly need to start doing.

“Compostable plastic is not the simple solution to the plastic crisis. Many waste authorities don’t have the facilities to collect or compost this material - and not everyone has access to a compost heap."