Iceland launches UK's first plastic bag-free store in fight against waste

Customers to be offered paper, jute and cotton alternatives

Supermarket chain Iceland is removing all plastic bags from one of its stores as it continues its fight against plastic pollution.

On Wednesday, the company announced that the trial will run in Iceland’s Hackney store and will see customers offered extra-strong paper bags for 15p which can hold up to 16kg of items.

Lighter weight paper carrier bags, jute bags, Disney branded cotton bags and small paper bags for meat products will also be available ranging in price from 10p to £1, providing a complete range of plastic-free options for customers.

At the same time, Iceland will also trial the 15p paper bags alongside plastic "bags for life" (15p) in North Wales, Wirral and Cheshire, covering a total of 25 stores.

This additional trial will be rolled out across a further 15 stores in the Manchester area from 10 August and will be used to monitor consumer preference.

Based on current usage and estimated switching rates, Iceland anticipates that the two trials will collectively save over 210,000 plastic carrier bags from being newly purchased.

Both trials will run for six months and the findings will be analysed throughout and used to inform Iceland’s long-term approach to replacing single use plastic carriers.

Richard Walker, managing director at Iceland, said that the retail industry needs to work together to challenge customers who use "bags for life" only once by experimenting with alternative solutions.

“Over 1.2 billion plastic bags for life were sold last year in the UK and this needs to change drastically,” Walker commented.

“These trials will help us to understand how our customers feel about removing one of the most common objects associated with plastic, the supermarket carrier bag, and how they respond to various alternatives.

“We’re looking forward to seeing how customers respond and using the results of the trials in our wider plans to reduce our plastic footprint.”

In 2018, the retailer removed plastic single-use carrier bags from all stores and became the first retailer globally to commit to remove all plastic from its own-label packaging by the end of 2023.

Since making its commitment in January 2018, Iceland has reduced or removed plastic packaging across 81 lines and removed over 1,500 tonnes of plastic in its packaging

On Monday, the supermarket announced plans to relaunch plastic-free packaging for bananas after it was forced back to the drawing board when an alternative failed to live up to customer expectations.

In an effort to observe its pledge to eliminate plastic from its own label products by 2023, Iceland isn’t giving up hope and has instead launched its latest efforts for new plastic-free banana packaging this week, with a trial across 20 stores from 24 July.