John Lewis Partnership to stop selling Christmas crackers with plastic toys inside

John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners have announced that this will be the last Christmas when they sell Christmas crackers with plastic toys inside. Instead crackers will be filled with toys made from recyclable materials such as metal and paper games, and decorated with techniques such as embossing, rather than plastic glitter.  The decision has been made as part of the Partnership’s plans to cut down on single use plastic products. 

This year John Lewis & Partners is selling three own brand designs of ‘fill your own’ crackers, and so far these are proving to be the most popular crackers, accounting for one in every three packets of crackers sold. 

In time for this Christmas John Lewis & Partners has reduced the amount of plastic glitter on its own brand range of Christmas wrapping paper, gift bags and tags, advent calendars and crackers by two-thirds. Today, the retailer has  announced that the ranges of these single use items which are being ordered now from suppliers for next Christmas will not contain any plastic glitter.  

In addition, John Lewis has already removed the plastic wrapping from vast majority of the individual cards it sells and estimates that this alone will save eight tonnes of plastic each year.  

Dan Cooper, Partner and Head Christmas Buyer at John Lewis said; “Reducing the amount of single use plastic in products and packaging is really important to us and our customers.

“One of the challenges I face as a buyer is that we plan 18 months ahead so it takes time for changes to become a reality. I’m always searching for new, more sustainable products which will make Christmas sparkle but won’t end up spoiling our environment.”

All of the real Christmas trees sold in John Lewis are grown in the UK and all of its tinsel is made in Wales.

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