Plastic waste such as drinks bottles which is at risk of getting into the sea, is now being collected and recycled and used again in Tesco’s fresh fish packaging.
Next week sees many of the supermarket’s fresh Salmon, Haddock, Cod and Sea Bass lines sold for the first time in trays that contain at least 30% Recycled Coastal Plastic collected from beaches, coastlines, and coastal communities around the Mediterranean Sea.
The move into the new packaging is expected to remove around 500 metric tonnes of plastic from the environment each year and reduce the amount of ‘virgin plastic’ required in the packaging.
The plastic waste consisting of Polypropylene, PET, Polyethylene, and other types of plastic, is collected from at-risk coastal areas such as beaches, and coastal communities within 10 km from the sea, thus prevented from entering the Mediterranean Sea by wind, rain or floods.
Collection and processing is undertaken with full transparency and traceability and certified by the non-profit organisation Keep Sea Blue which works with and connects organisations across the supply chain from collection to reuse in new packaging.
The plastic is recovered initially by a network of collectors across the Mediterranean, including volunteer groups involved in beach clean-ups, local authorities, non-profits, and the private sector. The PET share of the waste is then carefully sorted, grinded, washed and recycled and goes back into food-grade packaging materials.
