Tesco to offer plastic bag-free home delivery service

by Alex Donohue, Brand Republic 12-Jun-07, 08:50

LONDON - Tesco is to rollout a plastic bag-free option on its home delivery service for consumers across the UK, as part of its push to become a more environmentally friendly business.

The supermarket giant said its online delivery service will now allow users to choose whether they want to receive their groceries "naked", on stackable green plastic trays, or continue to use plastic bags.

The retailer said its "naked delivery" service aims to reduce the number of plastic bags, which it said wasted energy, by 1bn over the next 12 months.

Naked delivery, which has already been trialled in the UK, is an extension of a scheme that has been used in Ireland for the last two years, and will reward consumers who decide to go bag-free by giving them additional Tesco Clubcard points.

The retailer has said it wants to cut the 4bn plastic bags it dishes out annually by a quarter by 2008. It already awards its 13m Clubcard holders one point for every bag they bring back to stores.

Each year, an estimated 17bn bags are picked up by consumers from retail stores in the UK, and thrown away.

Tesco has been reported to recycle 150,000 tonnes of plastic bags and cardboard boxes every year. A series of other environmentally friendly initiatives are due to be unveiled by Tesco in the near future.

The initiative follows a recent trend among UK supermarkets to improve their environmental credentials. In September last year, Sainsbury's said it would sell more than 500 of its own-branded products in compostable packs, and Asda already runs a loyalty card scheme for customers who re-use plastic bags.

Comments

Llinos Williams - 12/06/2007

I’ve been living in Holland for a year where I do online grocery shopping. I receive one huge plastic bag for chilled items, and the rest come in stackable trays, where I pay around 7 euros for each tray. Unfortunately I don get to choose whether to use plastic bags or trays. When the next delivery arrives, I hand back the trays to get some money off my shopping. I can always take the trays back to the supermarket and get money back if I decide not to use online shopping again, though I’m not sure if all or part of the money. At the supermarket, I pay for plastic bags; therefore I usually keep hold of the bags and use them again next time. I guess it’s a good idea, but it is annoying to pay extra for the trays on top of delivery. I hope Tesco won’t be charging extra for trays.

gotnoteef - 12/06/2007

They probably won't make the consumer pay because that's 'a little that won't help' - instead the delivery truck will sit outside, engine running, while the punter unloads the trays on to the kitchen table - that way, everybody pays! Hurray for Tesco - saviour of the planet...