Making our packaging greener

Over the past three years, Tesco has been working with more than 300 suppliers and is on track to save over 100,000 tonnes of packaging this year.

Why do we need packaging?

Packaging is necessary to protect products and keep them in good condition. It’s also there to provide storage and consumer information. But we recognise it has an environmental impact, which is why we’re committed to reviewing all our packaging and going the extra mile to see how we can reduce it further.

We have set ourselves the target of reducing all product packaging by a quarter on food and non-food goods – such as electrical items and homeware – and on branded products too.

How we’re becoming greener

Unfortunately, getting rid of packaging isn't as easy as it sounds. In order for products to reach you in the best condition, we have to consider the fine balance between using minimal packaging and the supply chain.

We have five key principles to ensure our packaging is as efficient as possible:

1. Is it fit for purpose? The most important job packaging must do is to keep a product fresh, secure and in perfect condition. We also use it to communicate things like cooking instructions and nutritional information.
2. Can we use less of it? Yes. For instance, we’ve changed the design of the swing tags on our clothing lines and now print both sides, halving the packaging we use.
3. Is there a better material? Once we’ve thought about the perfect design, we can think about the best material to make it from – often using recycled plastic or glass, for example.
4. Can it be recycled? Packaging and recycling should always be considered together. Wherever possible, we will choose packaging that most councils now recycle.
5. What’s its carbon footprint? Although packaging typically makes up a small part of a product’s overall footprint, there are opportunities to make a real difference. For instance, we now receive New World wine in barrels and bottle it ourselves in this country – saving thousands of tonnes of glass from being shipped half way round the planet.

What we’re doing

Using the right packaging for the purpose

Many people are concerned that plastic packaging on fruit and vegetables is unnecessary, but in reality something as simple as a thin plastic wrapper on a cucumber helps it stay fresh for days longer. This helps to reduce food waste, which typically has a more harmful impact on the environment than the packaging.

Focusing on the biggest environmental opportunities

It is important we work on reducing all of our packaging, but we are currently focusing on key areas where we can make the biggest impact. These include wines, sauces, preserves and canned foods.

Protecting the environment and the product

We are working to minimise packaging wherever possible. However, it is important that we don’t minimise the packaging to the extent that the product itself is compromised. The product within the packaging is typically much more resource intensive to manufacture/grow than the packaging used to protect it, therefore we have a duty to prolong the life of the product as much as possible, to avoid any unnecessary energy waste. For example, the amount of energy that goes into producing a cucumber is high compared to the energy that goes into making its plastic wrapper packaging. The wrapper protects the cucumber for longer, reducing the chance of this higher amount of energy being wasted.

Reuse and recycle

As well as reducing packaging, it also helps the environment to reuse packaging where possible. A great example of where we are doing this is across our produce range, where we use returnable ‘green trays’. This saved 132,000 tonnes of cardboard packaging in 2007/08. We are now rolling out a similar system with clothing hangers too.

Back in 2005, we were one of the first retailers to sign a voluntary agreement called the Courtauld Commitment – a government-led scheme to reduce packaging waste across the grocery industry.

If packaging can’t be reused, the next best thing for the environment is to recycle it. We are also part of several working groups alongside other retailers, brand suppliers, government-associated agencies and local councils that aim to improve recycling, develop scientific research in maximising efficiency of packaging and recycling, and investigate alternatives to current packaging.

Find out more about recycling.

Talk to us

If you have any questions, or ideas on improving packaging, email packaging.reduction@uk.tesco.com and one of our Packaging Buyers or Technical Managers will respond to you directly.

Frequently asked questions on packaging.