Sainsbury's announce big change to all UK stores and customers will notice difference

The supermarket giant said it is the first UK supermarket to make the move. The change is said to save more than 560 tonnes of plastic a year

Sainsbury's shoppers will notice a significant change in the supermarket's bakery section as new packaging has been introduced. The move, aimed at reducing plastic waste, is expected to cut over 560 tonnes of plastic annually.

Changes have been made to the packaging of pastries, doughnuts and baguettes from the in-store bakery, switching from plastic to paper. Previously, items such as doughnuts and pastries were packaged in clam-shell style containers, but these are now being replaced with cardboard and paper.

Sainsbury's claims this shift will result in a 90% reduction in plastic use, cutting plastic packaging by 414 tonnes each year. Doughnuts will now be packaged in cardboard boxes with a small window, while twin-pack pastries, croissants and cinnamon swirls will be moved to paper bags.

In-store bakery bread will also see up to a 60% reduction in plastic through the removal of full plastic bags across loaves, baguettes and batons. These have been replaced with recyclable paper bags with plastic windows, saving 152 tonnes of plastic annually.

Customers can expect to see these changes in all stores in the coming months. Sainsbury's has stated that the window on the new packaging can be easily separated from the box and paper bag for recycling at any front-of-store recycling points at the supermarket.

The card and paper can be recycled at home in kerbside recycling. This is the most recent initiative from Sainsbury's, which recently decided to eliminate single-use plastics on mushroom punnets, a move that will save approximately 775 tonnes of plastic each year. The supermarket was also the first to transition all its kitchen and toilet roll packaging from plastic to paper, reducing plastic waste by over 480 tonnes annually.

Other supermarkets like Aldi are also making efforts to reduce their plastic consumption, with a recent experiment involving the removal of plastic packaging from bananas.