Tesco, the third-largest retailer in the world, is fighting plastic pollution by not only having a five pence tax on bags, but also using recycled cardboard for packaging for many holiday items like lights, crackers, cards, etc.
20 million single-use plastic wrappings are the estimate of what has and will be eliminated by the U.K. supermarket.
“It is an absolute priority of ours to remove and reduce the amount of plastic in our stores to the minimum and ensure everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment–Christmas time is no exception and we want to do our bit to help customers have more sustainable celebrations,” says Tesco’s Quality Director, Sarah Bradbury.
According to the Good News Network, simple decisions, such as removing the plastic layer around a box of Christmassy puddings, spared 1.78 million pieces of plastic, while removing the plastic packaging components of their own-brand crackers alone left their operations 14 million plastic pieces lighter.
The retailer also eliminated glitter in all their single-use products and packaging making these products recyclable. Glitter is branded as an environmental scourge that contains damaging microplastics, reports The Guardian. Standard glitter is made from etched aluminum bonded to polyethylene terephthalate – a form of microplastic that can find its way into the oceans. It can pose a danger to people and animals.
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