Iceland goes bananas for paper packaging
FROZEN food giant Iceland is the first supermarket to halt the sale of plastic-wrapped bananas.
Their pre-packed bananas will have a recycled paper band, preventing 10 million plastic bags from going to landfill every year.
Managing director Richard Walker said the new packaging will appear in 120 stores from today and be rolled out to all 900 shops by the end of the year.
Iceland has pledged to remove plastic from its own-label packaging by 2023, and since the start of the year has taken 850 tonnes of plastic out of its stores. It is also trialling paper bags instead of single-use plastic carriers.
In frozen ready meals, black plastic trays have been replaced with paper-based alternatives.
Mr Walker said: “People have become so used to buying their products wrapped in plastic, or indeed using plastic bags for loose produce, and this has to stop.”
Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II showed the impact of plastic pollution on the oceans. Theresa May has called for plastic free aisles in supermarkets.