Asda has announced it will be launching a supermarket first – a range of plastic-free living herbs.
All of Asda’s living herbs, which are currently sold in a plastic pot with a plastic wrap, will be moving into a new, more sustainable container called a ‘plug’.
The plastic wrap will also be replaced by a paper sleeve to protect the herbs, making the entire product plastic-free, which will save 45.6 tonnes of plastic each year.
Shamma Mohammed, Category Planning Manager for Produce said: “As a team we’ve worked really hard with the supplier to come up with this fantastic innovation, which will help significantly reduce plastic on our fresh produce, without affecting the quality of the product. It’s really important to our customers and colleagues that we remove unnecessary plastic and this is just the latest in a number of initiatives across every part of the Asda business”.
The move is all part of Asda’s commitment to remove unnecessary plastic from its operations and the retailer has already removed 6,500 tonnes of plastic from its own-brand packaging in the past 18 months.
It has also removed single-use carrier bags from both its stores and online orders, meaning that 375 million fewer bags will be produced a year.
The plastic-free range will be available for seven different herbs:
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Coriander
- Basil
- Mint
- Flat Parsley
- Curly Parsley
Customers will be able to purchase the herbs from late September.
In-line with its ongoing commitment to ‘use less and recycle more’, Asda also announced earlier this week that it will become the first supermarket to move its entire own brand fresh ready meal range into fully recyclable packaging, with the use of a new tray made from recycled materials.
Launching nationwide from 3rd November, 97 of Asda’s fresh ready meal lines will move to new ‘Evolve’ by Faerch trays, made from natural cPET – a form of detectable and recyclable plastic. The move will transform 775 tonnes of plastic and 45 million ready meal trays from non-recyclable to recyclable material.
With over half of its fresh ready meals already in recyclable plastic or foil trays, the further additions will now mean Asda will be the first retailer to have an entire range of own-brand fresh ready meal trays that are fully recyclable.
