Managing Director Richard Walker is clear about Iceland’s mission to reduce plastic
“As leading contributors to plastic packaging pollution and waste, the onus is on retailers to take a stand and deliver meaningful change.” But when Iceland announced their intention to remove plastic from all own label packaging by 2023, even he wasn’t prepared for the impact.
Within a week of the announcement, research showed the number of people who viewed Iceland as the most environmentally friendly retailer rose from 3% to over 15%. It looked as though Iceland was giving consumers exactly what they wanted.
A year on, plastic is out and moulded fibre is in. Iceland has chosen Hartmann’s moulded fibre egg boxes as part of the solution for its own label eggs. And their initiative to remove plastic from their own label products by 2023 is very much on track.
Richard Walker, Iceland Managing Director
Late 2017
Survey of 5,000 consumers finds that 80% would endorse a supermarket that dropped single-use plastic packaging
January 2018
Iceland commits to replacing plastic packaging on own label products
July 2018
Iceland tops the UK’s customer satisfaction index for supermarkets
December 2018
Iceland ranks number one for plastic reduction in Greenpeace / Environmental Investigation Agency report
January 2019
Iceland switches to Hartmann moulded fibre egg boxes as part of the solution for own label eggs
Report ranks Iceland number one for plastic reduction
A recent report by Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigation Agency reveals that UK supermarkets have more than 59 billion pieces of single-use plastic passing through their stores every year - a figure it calls “astonishing and unacceptable."
In the report, 10 of the UK’s leading supermarket chains are ranked according to their policies on plastic. And Iceland comes out on top. The report goes on to state that Iceland “… has shown the most ambition in committing to eliminating own-brand, single-use plastic packaging.”
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