Waitrose to halve its packaging

The supermarket says it will aim to use 50 per cent of material compared to 2005 – it hopes to cut out 100 tonnes of packaging each year through relaunching its ranges as part of this target.

It has unveiled three packaging redesigned which aim to help it achieve its target. All of these, Waitrose says, were designed by its in-house graphics team.

The Menu From Waitrose range has been redesigned to reduce the width of the sleeves on the outside of the product.

Rolling out across all 49 products in the range, Waitrose says this will save 33 tonnes of packaging a year.

The Good to Go range of 190 snacks and sandwiches is also being relaunched. Changes being introduced include increasing the size of clear windows on sandwiches and printing directly on fruit bags, thus cutting out the need for a label.

Waitrose says these changes will help save 25 tonnes of packaging each year.

And in the third relaunch, flow-wraps are being introduced to all Waitrose’s meat products, replacing plastic trays. The flow-wraps have already been introduced to several meat ranges, and Waitrose says that by rolling out the flow-wrapping to its pork and lamb products it will cut out 38 tonnes of packaging.

Waitrose packaging and reprographics manager Karen Graley says, ‘We are always working hard to reduce packaging where we can… Relaunching the range is a fantastic opportunity to do this.’