We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
UK RETAILER MARKS & Spencer has announced that it will reduce the packaging of its own products to cut down on waste – but other supermarkets in Ireland don’t have the same plans (at least not yet).
Last week, the Guardian reported that more than 140 of Marks & Spencer’s “best-selling products” have been repackaged in smaller sizes, but will still have the same amount of food in them as before.
The change meant reducing the air bubble in bags of crisps and popcorn in order to make the packaging smaller.
The change, which is a part of their ‘Project Thin Air’, has led to 75 tonnes of packaging being saved each year, which (in terms of carbon emissions savings) equals 152 fewer lorries on the road.
M&S said it had been working on this project for a year, and hoped to roll it out to other areas of the store as well.
As of yet, however, other major supermarkets in Ireland don’t have plans to roll-out a similar plan to reduce the packaging on their products.
When asked by TheJournal.ie about M&S’s Project Thin Air, a spokesperson for Tesco said that they were “aware that packaging has become a growing concern for customers” and are looking at ways to address this.
Through our membership of the Government’s Action Group in the Retail Sector, we’re reviewing proposals regarding food waste and this includes packaging.
A spokesperson for Aldi said that it was working with its suppliers “to improve packaging design to minimise waste and maximise recycled content as appropriate”, but didn’t comment on plans to reduce its own packaging.
“We are committed to using reusable, secondary packaging, like returnable crates, wherever possible, while all Aldi own-label products are labelled with the relevant recycle logos, according to our Recycling Brand Guidelines.”
It added that it’s also making efforts to minimise food waste.
Our national partnership with FoodCloud has allowed us to donate over 400 tonnes to date of surplus food to hundreds of local charities from our stores nationwide.
SuperValu and Centra, which are both owned by the Musgrave Group, said that they were “continuously looking for ways to prevent waste and to maximise recycling”, but said that packaging was an important part of the food business.
“Packaging plays an important role in containing, preserving and protecting food throughout its journey from production until it is consumed in the home,” a spokesperson said.
Plastic packaging also helps to maximise shelf-life and reduce food spoilage, thus preventing household food waste. We work closely with our suppliers to ensure that packaging is kept to the absolute minimum.
Both stores said they worked closely with Repak and the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) “to ensure that we continue to make improvements in this area”.
Dunnes Stores, Lidl and Spar Ireland were contacted for comment, but did not reply before this article was published.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Disappointing to hear other supermarkets have little intention to follow suit. Im sick and tired of seeing bananas wrapped in plastic, it has a natural skin for good reason
@Kevin Higgins: I wish my girlfriend would say the same thing.
@Kevin Higgins: the plastic packaging is so the bunch can have a bar code on it, distinguished it from the ones you can buy loose, enabling them to be part of the multi buy offers. And some are to distinguish the organic ones as such.
You can always choose to buy the loose ones yourself.
@Ariana: a sticker would do the same job no need for plastic
@Gavin Merrigan: i work in retail. It definitely wouldn’t.
@Gavin Merrigan: It wouldn’t, people would just pull them apart, they take out bottles from multi packs as it is, even though it couldn’t be clearer it’s a multi pack.
Rule #1 of retail, people are idiots and as.sholes.
@Ariana: Cloured markers will do then. Just dot a different colour on the bananas.
Tesco deli is ridiculous. Plastic bag for every item. Can’t throw everything in the one if you asked them as each item needs a barcode. Could they not come up with a system to add the final cost together and stick it on then
@JC: *coloured
@Skimothy: I worked in retail myself and back then we had this amazingly futuristic machine called a scales , you could place your banana or bananas on press a button and like magic a sticker wound print out with a price and barcode on absolutely no need for plastic bags
@Skimothy: I was a manager of a Supervalue 25 years ago I remember less packaging and labels stuck on bunches of bananas so if it could be done then it can be done now. Boxes of cereal we don’t need the box just the inner bag etc etc
@Tom Harpur: absolutely! It could be just a coincidence but with the advent of recycling products seemed to gain more unnecessary packaging. And more packaging = more space for branding it’s s vicious circle
@Ariana: Rule #1 if retail: the customer is always right, and if they don’t want to be forced by the shop to spend the additional money on an entire multipack but just want a single item, which isn’t available on the shelf, they’ll use their intelligence and take one out of a multipack; thus also sending the clear message to the retailer that you should provide the products in the format that I want, not in some package-wasting and money-wasting multipack. And while I’m at it, why is it that frequently package-minimising larger items are more expensive than smaller ones? SuperValu cornflakes 750 g versus 500 g come to mind!
@Kevin Higgins: its an article clearly aimed at M&S. Confused theyll reduce packaging considering so much of their food needs to be microwaved. The article clearly states that the main competitors plan to reducee too.
@Gavin Merrigan: oh my bad. I didnt realise you were gullible enough to believe there would be no issues there with customers printing the correct sticker i.e. organic, budget, multibuy etc…
Plenty of supermarkets weigh fruit and vegetables at the till. It’s not a big deal.
Well done M&S, now lets try taking it a step further and stop importing eggs, milk and potatoes into Ireland thereby taking another 150 lorries of the roads.
@Mark Lawlor: we need to be careful with that one, what if all countries say the same? Our agricultural and food industries die overnight.
@Paul Fahey: I’m well aware of the importance of exports for the aggri sector. But importing the three examples I chose to sell in the Irish market is like importing sand to Saudis. I’m also well aware I can vote with my feet so I dont shop there because they dont stock any Irish produce.
Importing spuds to the paddys??? Come on!!!
@Mark Lawlor: don’t see where marks and Spencer’s good quality rep come from. Everything seem to been made a week previously in some god awful corner of Britain.
To able to sell a sambo for 2.50 when that’s your model says a lot on raw ingredient cost
@Mark Lawlor: and beef. Irish beef is a million times better
@Mark Lawlor: Well said. We need to be buying Irish grown produce. Ireland as a whole needs to be supporting our small companies/businesses and stop relying so heavily on foreign trade for food and jobs.
@Paul Fahey: I doubt we sell much standard fresh milk to UK mainland store shelves. Same for eggs. Even Aldi and Lidl buy that stuff from Ireland. But M&S do import UK milk, eggs and butter and bread.
All food should have a BER-like environmental rating. That way consumers could quickly recognise products with excessive/unrecyclable packaging and large carbon footprint.
@Bryan Butler: That is a excellent idea. Hats off.
@Bryan Butler: Brilliant idea.
In Boots this week looking at perfume and found one I liked. Asked to buy it and the box I was handed, though shaped like the sample bottle I had been using, seemed quite light. Checked the liquid weights. I had been using a 3.3 ml sample bottle. I had been handed a 1.1 ml bottle packaged as if it held the larger one. It was not about extending the shelf life! Stores want to give the impression of more than is there.
@Rathminder: a perfume wonderbra, I’ve heard it all now.
@Rathminder: I’m confused… You bought perfume that was 3 mls or 1 ml? Of course that would stick out as standard sizing is 30 mls, 50 mls and 100 mls and as it was Boots it wasn’t a parfum absolute. Can you buy perfume under 10 mls in Boots?
@Rathminder: sample bottles are usually bigger than the actual size bottle you buy…
@Suzie Sunshine:
We’ll you should know I have sniffed
Your perfume slandering along the Quays
So Centra/Supervalue, double and triple packaging is necessary, but in Germany, Switzerland and France they can do with only one and in many cases zero packaging, and nobody dies! Me thinks somebody is telling porkies
Alot of aldi packaging is not able to recycled at all. Plastic wrapping on alot of fruit and veg and meats are designated not to be recycled alot people just assuming all plastic is recycled
@Andrew Hoey: This is true and really annoys me. The majority of both Aldi and Lidl product packaging is not recyclable and I am sure that most of it goes in the recycle bin because people just assume its recyclable. One of the things that keeps their prices lower I suppose.
@Andrew Hoey: actually when I lived in Enniscorthy they took all plastic for recycling even binoculars liners and those bags you put your fruit and veg in . It can be done just some councils couldn’t be bothered
It’s about time M&S packaging was reduced. They are the worst offenders. As for the others, people should unpack after checkout and leave the packaging for them to deal with. That would soon change their minds
@Randal McNally: the supermarket does not have to accept it. Some have removed bins from check out areas because of it. Heard that point on radio one day.
@Barbara Edwards: I found it hard to believe they would just accept it either so interesting to hear this. I suppose we could always phone ahead and find out which stores would allow it and shop there.
What happened to peope buying what we needed. We bought sugar weighed into bags.. ..butter the same and it was wrapped in greaseproof paper. Fruit was weighed into brown paper bags and a brown paper carrier bag used to take it all home. We bought local and ate what was in season. Plastic was the inovation thats created untold waste. Should reduce plastic and be sllowed to leave unwanted packaging at the store and we should drink the tap water we pay for.
@smudge: wow. I’m surprised you even know what the internet is.
PS. Sorry about losing your first division male only mass. I know you’ve been attending, since the very first one, 150 years ago
I do my bit for the environment by leaving all the packaging in the trolley for the shop to deal with after packing the contents into my fuel guzzling huge carbon footprint Range Rover
The packaging people will have to wrap up and go
@ life in no motion.
Hope you soon have “life in mtion” judging by your comment your obviously very young and have no life history regarding recycling as do some of the more mature people who comment here. We did manage years ago without cellophane and lots of cardboard and we didn’t have the need to waste foid. I’m sure your mum n dad would agree. So far as Internet use goes I use it day in and day out in running my business and it has opened up the world to us all.
The majority of the packaging in Aldi is non recyclable, most likely to reduce costs. So instead of reducing packaging they might have a greater impact if they just made their packaging recyclable. #aldi
It’s ridiculous waste. They are just afraid that customers will feel like they are getting less when the package is smaller. We all know at this stage that half a bag of crisps is just air anyway.
Joining Rehab packaging is meaningless. Have you ever seen anything done by the industry group? Getting rid of excess food to charities does not cut packaging and it cuts shops own disposal costs. When you can return packaging to the store vs paying for it to be burnt then watch supermarkets change their mind and exert immediate pressure on manufacturers…
Maybe its time for us to all unpack our shopping at the checkouts and leave the packaging on the supermarket floors
Go on M&S!
have your say