Morrisons ditches plastic from flower bouquets for paper wrap

Morrisons is to ditch plastic sleeves on flower bouquets for brown paper wrapping as part of its ongoing drive to cut down on unnecessary plastic.

In a move that would save 925 tonnes of plastic per year, the retailer today announced it would banish plastic from its flower displays across its entire store network. The initiative follows in the footsteps of independent florists and will see it eliminate the use of some 18.5 million bouquet sleeves by the time the switchover is complete in early 2019.

The retailer said standard Morrisons bouquets would be the first to move into the new waterproof wax paper wrap from September. Single flower bunches and Morrisons’ The Best premium range are set to follow in early 2019. The wrapping is made from 100% recyclable, FSC certified “hydro paper”.

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“Customers are telling us they’d like us to reduce the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging we use,” said Morrisons category director for produce and horticulture, Drew Kirk.

“The new paper wrap does exactly the same job as plastic and looks just as good. More importantly though, it keeps a large amount of plastic out of the environment.”

It comes as part of Morrisons’ commitment to ensure all its own-brand plastic packaging would be reusable, recyclable or compostable by the end of 2025 after signing Wrap’s UK Plastics Pact.

Earlier this month, the retailer announced it had removed plastic wrapping from its British-grown cucumbers despite admitting the move would reduce shelf life from seven days to five. It also rolled out brown paper bags to pack loose fruit and veg items in produce aisles in June.

The plastic reduction drive also saw it pledge to incentivise customers with 100 Morrisons More points per visit if they brought their own reusable containers to carry meat and fish at its butcher and fishmonger counters.