The Co-op is one of the two major supermarkets yet to commit to WRAP’s collaborative agreement to tackle single-use plastics, but the company’s environment manager Iain Ferguson believes that an “enterprising” approach to innovation will enable the retailer to rethink approaches to packaging.
In April 2018, signatories from 42 businesses that are responsible for more than 80 per cent of the plastic packaging on products sold in UK supermarkets signed up to a new collaborative programme to make unnecessary single-use plastic packaging “a thing of the past”.
The UK Plastics Pact had just been launched by WRAP, setting four key targets for signatories to reach by 2025. Over the next seven years, members of the UK Plastics Pact will need to guarantee that 100 per cent of plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable, ensure that 70 per cent of plastic packaging is effectively recycled or composted, use at least 30 per cent recycled content across all plastics packaging, and eliminate unnecessary single-use plastics through redesign, innovation and alternative delivery models.