Morrisons to become first UK supermarket to offer plastic-free fruit and veg

With their new initiative, Morrisons will become the first supermarket in the UK to sell all of their fruit and veg without plastic packaging.

The British supermarket will offer 127 loose fruit and veg varieties over the next year. The fruit and veg will either be sold in recyclable paper bags or loose.

The initiative be rolled out in 60 Morrisons stores during the course of 2019. They will then continue to be introduced as part of the supermarket’s ongoing store refurbishment programme nationwide, saving even more plastic over time.

This move follows a ten month trial in three stores across the UK, where the amount of loose fruit and veg bought by customers increased by 40 per cent.

Drew Kirk, Fruit and Veg Director at Morrisons, said: “Many of our customers would like the option of buying their fruit and veg loose. So we’re creating an area of our greengrocery with no plastic where they can pick as much or as little as they like. We’re going back to using traditional greengrocery and we hope customers appreciate the choice.”

In the UK, a poll by Greenpeace found that two thirds of the public want government action on the climate emergency.

By retailers like Morrisons becoming more sustainable, consumers can make a more environmentally friendly choice and contribute to reducing the growing plastic pollution in the UK.

This is not the first time that Morrisons has committed to a sustainable future. Recently they have undergone changes that will remove 9,000 tonnes of unnecessary or ‘problematic’ plastic each year. This figure includes 174 million plastic produce bags removed from fruit and veg aisles, and 600 tonnes of unrecyclable polystyrene removed from branded food and drink products.