Sainsbury’s has rolled out a major change to its avocados (Image: Sainsbury’s)
Avocado buyers across the UK are being urged to visit Sainsbury’s stores after the has rolled out a .
is introducing new paper packaging across its own-brand Rip and Ready Avocados twin pack, with the move helping to save 20.2 million pieces of plastic annually upon full rollout.
The new plastic-free packaging, which consists of paper with bamboo netting and is fully recyclable at kerbside, is currently part of a trial across 77 Sainsbury’s supermarkets, with a wider rollout expected to follow later this year both in-store and online.
To coincide with the launch, Sainsbury’s is also selling its avocados twin pack on a offer meaning loyalty card members can pick up a pack for £1.35 in stores and online, making a saving of 30p.
Anyone that doesn’t have a Nectar card will have to pay £1.65 and shoppers should note that the Nectar offer will only be available for a limited time until January 25.
Claire Hughes, Director of Product and Innovation at Sainsbury’s said: “Switching to paper packaging across our Ripe & Ready Avocados twin pack is one of the many steps we are taking to fulfill our commitment towards a greener future.
“The initiative reflects our continuous efforts to help develop more sustainable and innovative packaging solutions and we’re excited for our customers to try out the new packaging in-store.”
Meanwhile, UK shoppers are being urged to “refuse to buy” avocados in supermarkets that have been wrapped in plastic wrappers. Author Isabel Losada says shoppers should outright refuse to buy plastic wrapped avocados to help send a message to supermarkets that they need to make a change.
In her book The Joyful Environmentalist, she says: “Plastic wrappers around fresh food like bananas, oranges, and avocados? Just refuse to buy them. Sometimes you have to be prepared to inconvenience yourself.
“If you go to a supermarket and the food you want to eat is wrapped in plastic, take ten minutes out of your day to speak to the manager and explain why you won’t be buying the wrapped bananas because you don’t eat banana peel.
“Do they care? Yes they do. This is capitalism and they care about every purchase. Meanwhile, go on adventures and find all the places locally where you can buy what you need without the plastic.
“Once you start this it brings the fun back into shopping. You are now an activist. We have a grocer’s where I live where I can buy 90 percent of my fruit and veg package and waste free. You may feel that your shopping habits won’t make a difference but there are millions of us.”
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According to The Big Plastic Count 2024, UK households throw away an estimated 1.7 billion pieces of plastic every week – with around 60 pieces per household. This is equivalent to 90 billion tonnes of waste per year. Of this, 81% of plastic food waste comes from food and drink packaging, most likely from supermarkets.
Supermarkets promised to make all of their packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025 as part of the UK Plastics Pact, but results from the 2024 survey show they’re still miles off reaching that target, so it falls to shoppers to do their bit to help.
Anti-waste charity Wrap has also called for a government ban on plastic packaging for 21 fresh produce items in UK supermarkets, including avocados, estimating that such a ban on specified items sold in amounts less than 1.5kg could eliminate 100,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables from waste annually and reduce single-use plastic film by 13,000 tonnes.