Morrisons is first retailer to remove black plastic…

Morrisons is first retailer to remove black plastic packaging from own brand products

MORRISONS has announced it is removing black plastic from all of its own brand food and drink packaging.

The Bradford-based firm is the first retailer to do so, and it is an important step in the company’s efforts to make all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.

Conventional black plastic packaging cannot be sorted using optical equipment at plastic recovery facilities, which means it ends up either being disposed of in landfill or incinerated.

The move by Morrisons accounts for almost 4,000 tonnes of plastic being made more easily recyclable, with the supermarket’s ready meal range already benefitting from the switch to a recyclable plastic which contains 85 per cent recycled content.

This is the latest announcement from Morrisons – whose commitments have already removed 9,000 tonnes of unnecessary or problematic plastic each year. This figure includes 174m plastic produce bags removed from fruit and veg aisles, 600 tonnes of unrecyclable polystyrene removed from branded food and drink products and a further 1,300 tonnes of plastic being removed as a result of the launch of paper carrier bags.

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Natasha Cook, packaging manager at Morrisons said: “It’s important to our customers that we make it easier to recycle plastic and so we are very pleased to announce that we’ve been able to eliminate black plastic from our own-brand products.”