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Homepage / Environmental / Waste / Plastic Waste

Packaging, particularly single-use plastic, is a material issue for Asda and for the entire sector. Our strategy continues to be to work product-by-product, store-by-store to reduce our packaging and/or wherever possible replace with more recyclable material.

Our 2025 goal: Reduce packaging and drive 100% of what remains

The basis of our approach is to apply the “3 Rs” of waste management, focusing on reducing or avoiding packaging altogether:

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Reduce

Our first priority is to eliminate all avoidable packaging focussing on both weight and piece changes in order to avoid inadvertently making things worse by “lightweighting” a pack which is currently easy to recycle and instead increasing its chance of ending up as street or ocean litter.

We are now working through the latest science and data before making a further reduction commitment, to make sure we don’t drive any unintended consequences.

Reuse

Introducing packaging which can be reused has the potential to make a big contribution to our efforts to reduce single-use packaging.

In 2021 we removed all single use plastic fruit and veg bags from our stores, instead offering customers a reusable alternative and by introducing reusable or refillable solutions for packaging has seen us shift 96% of our fresh meat and produce being transited in reusable crates.

In our four refill trial stores, Asda supports customers to reduce their packaging, while saving money and in 2022 we introduced our ‘Refill Price Promise’, to give certainty to customers that our refill ranges are cheaper than pre-packed.

Our refill zones offer “refill” versions of everyday items like coffee, pet biscuits, nuts or household cleaners sold in loose dispensed products which our customers can buy by the kilo using their own reusable containers.

Recycle

Where packaging can’t be reduced or reused, we aim for the highest possible level of recyclability.

88.3% of Asda Brand packaging is recyclable in customer homes via kerbside collections (2021: 85.9%), a further 4.7% (2021:4.7%) of Asda Brand packaging is accepted in our stores for recycling.

29.4% of Asda Brand primary packaging contains recycled content (2021: 27.9%), meaning we are on track for at least 30% by 2025.

By setting a target to reach at least 30% recycled content in Asda Brand packaging we’re helping to stimulate the market for recycled materials and enabling investment in new recycling infrastructure and technologies.

Over the last few years, we’ve also introduced many products containing recycled content, such as saucepans, washing up bowls and bedding. We’ll be incorporating a “circular” philosophy into the heart of our integrated own brand packaging strategy and expect to establish at least 25 viable projects before 2025.

We’re constantly looking for ways to drive down our waste and to create new uses for our waste products at the end of its life, as we work towards our target. These include:-

NEW for 2022: We now have recycling and food waste bins in every store colleague rest area
Recycling bins (in 450 of our stores) to collect customers’ unwanted clothing, which is then used to raise funds by our charity partners and kept out of landfill
Battery recycling bins and small electrical drop off points at all our customer services counters
Customer recycling bins for all types of plastic bags and film packaging – all of which we send for recycling.
Dedicated recycling hubs to take back items such as crisp and biscuit packets, plastic toys, and toothpaste tubes at our Refill stores
We no longer send coat hangers with on-line clothing parcels and trying to retain clothes hangers in store.
Removed single use plastic in 2019 such as cutlery, cups and straws used in our Asda cafes, offices and other sites by switching to wood, paper, or reusable solutions wherever possible.
Through our partnership with The Reuse Network we even send our old office and canteen furniture on to enjoy a second lease of life.

Plastic in Products

As well as being the most common packaging material, plastic can feature in single-use products. Sometimes it’s obvious and can be easily eliminated; for example we’ve completely eliminated single-use plastic straws, cutlery and take away containers from our stores and cafés. We removed 25 million plastic forks from our fresh salads and we offer an extensive range of accessories for plastic free parties. Plastic can also be found in unexpected places, for example in cleaning wipes or tea bags.

Case Study

At Asda, we know how passionate our customers are about our Little Angels Range and from the moment their little ones arrive to the first adventures of toddlerhood, we are proud that our products are helping parents every step of the way.

Finding a brand that you trust for is incredibly important for all parents, so we take our responsibilities to our Little Angels range incredibly seriously. We pride ourselves on quality and rigorously test all our range to ensure quality is consistent and every product is perfect for our little customers.

As a business, we are determined to remove unnecessary plastic from our products. It’s something our customers and colleagues feel really strongly about - and so do we. So we asked our customers what they thought about us removing the plastic lid on top of the baby wipes packaging, without compromising on the quality of the wipes.

Overwhelmingly, our customers said yes to getting rid of the plastic lid and that it’s the right thing to do for the planet and armed with this feedback we replaced the lid with a new semi-rigid lid that uses much less plastic but still keeps the wipes moist.

This simple change removes 335 tonnes of plastic from our packaging!

We are in the process of identifying all types of products we sell where single-use plastic could be removed and working with suppliers to assess alternative options.