Iceland boss has urged government to set "more aggressive, mandatory plastic reduction targets for businesses as food giant announced the launch of a series of new packaging trials that will see the supermarket heavily reducing plastic usage across nine products.
“While we are very proud of the progress we have made so far, our journey to becoming plastic free would be much easier if Government set more aggressive, mandatory plastic reduction targets as a framework for business to operate within," Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said.
"Once again, we would also call upon our fellow retailers to make more ambitious commitments to reducing their plastic footprint so we can find solutions that reduce the need to rely on plastic packaging together," he said.
The nine products will see either plastic-free or heavily reduced packaging replace the current packaging, resulting in a reduction of plastic of 36.6 tonnes.
Frozen vegetables and herbs including garlic, coriander, ginger and chilli will now be packaged in cartons. Iceland’s Soured Cream & Chive Dip and Sweet Chilli Houmous are now packaged in paperboard pots and the supermarket’s frozen 25pk Chicken Dippers and Chicken Popsters are packaged in first to market innovative paper laminate bags.
Iceland’s frozen Easy Peel Wild Red Shrimp will be completely free from plastic with a coated paper bag replacing the old packaging, a truly groundbreaking innovation for frozen food.
The new packaging will be trialled in 115 Iceland stores across Cheshire, North Wales and the West Midlands.
