The supermarket giant will make all its plastic bags degradable

Tesco has launched a two pronged initiative to alter its approach on dispensing carrier bags to its customers, chief executive officer Sir Terry Leahy announced yesterday. In a speech, he disclosed that all of the company’s carrier bags will be degradable from September of this year. “We are also seeking to cut by 25% over the next two years the number of plastic carrier bags that we give to customers,” he said.

The UK’s largest supermarket chain first started using a degradable additive supplied by Canadian group EPI in its carrier bags in 2003 (PRW.com 8 December 2003). According to Leahy, Tesco customers have told the firm that they would like to see fewer carrier bags used. As a result, Tesco will be improving the quality of its reusable Bags for Life and will experiment with “different materials.”

If the company’s programme succeeds, its use of plastic carrier bags would fall by nearly one billion, he said. In a further move, Tesco aims to double the amount that its customers bring back for recycling in a project where it has involved Wrap. “If we achieve that we will be contributing around 10% of the total additional tonnage needed to meet the UK’s EU packaging recycling targets,” Leahy said. Tesco last year participated in a Wrap-funded programme to cut disposable bag usage by encouraging customers to buy reusable bags (PRW.com 19 September 2005).