‘Super’ bag joins war on plastic
CO-OP TO OFFER ‘COMPOSTABLE’ BAGS INSTEAD OF SINGLE-USE CARRIERS
CO-OP food stores in Greater Manchester have become the first in the country to offer compostable bags instead of single-use plastic.
The retailer has trialled the concept in 22 local stores ahead of a nationwide roll-out to almost 1,400 stores later this year.
The move will remove around 60 million single-use plastic carrier bags and is part of a new hard-hitting ethical strategy called ‘The Future of Food - a recipe for sustainability.’
It will tackle plastic pollution as well as food waste, healthy eating, saving energy and trading fairly.
The blue-print sets out how the Co-op will ban single-use own-brand plastic products, reduce its overall use of plastic packaging within five years and stop using hard to recycle materials, like black plastic.
As part of the commitment, the lightweight compostable carrier bags, which can be used to carry shopping home and then have a secondary use as food waste caddy liners, will be rolled out to stores in towns, cities and villages where the bags are accepted by the local authority in food waste collections. Oldham council is the first council to work with the Co-op, turning food waste, and bag, into peat-free compost. The not-for-profit compostable bags are priced at 5p, the same price as a conventional single-use plastic bag. The Co-op’s pledge on plastic will see all its own-brand packaging become easy to recycle by 2023. It has promised to use a minimum of 50 per cent recycled plastic in bottles, pots, trays and punnets by 2021. All own-brand black and dark plastic packaging, including black ready meal trays, will be eliminated by 2020. Jo Whitfield, retail chief executive at Co-op, said: “The price of food wrapped in plastic has become too much to swallow and the Co-op will phase out any packaging which cannot be reused. “The first step to remove single-use plastic will be to launch compostable carrier bags in our stores. “They a simple but ingenious way to provide an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic shopping bags.” Iain Ferguson, environment manager at Co-op, said: “Our customers expect us to help them to make more ethical choices, and we are dedicated to doing just that.” Jo Whitfield, Co-op retail chief executive are