Cut-price wrapping paper also encourages customers to have an eco-friendlier Christmas
Morrisons has removed all plastic packaging from its Christmas wrapping paper and accessory ranges.
For this year’s Christmas collection, the retailer has removed all plastic film and shrink wrap packaging from its rolls of festive gift wrap – a move that it says saves over 3.1 tonnes of plastic from this range alone.
Plastic packaging has also been removed from all gifting accessories, such as gift tags and bags.
Gift bags themselves will be made entirely of recyclable paper, with their plastic ribbon handles replaced by a paper twist or paper braid alternative.
This is the latest move by Morrisons to remove plastic from its Christmas ranges. In previous years, the retailer removed glitter and plastic from paper wrap, crackers and cards – reducing plastic use by over 150 tonnes over the past three years.
To help make disposing of festive wrap easier, Morissons has also launched a fully recyclable sticky tape, which does not need to be removed before placing paper gift wrap in curbside collections.
The UK’s fourth largest supermarket is also giving customers more incentive to have an eco-friendlier Christmas this year, by halving the price of wrapping paper compared to last Christmas.
Wrapping paper will cost just 99p this year – down from £2 in 2021 – whilst the price of gift bags has also been reduced.
Jodie Mackrill, Buying Manager for Christmas and Events at Morrisons, said: “We are always looking to find ways to reduce and remove plastic packaging across all of the products we sell. It’s what our customers tell us they want too.
“During the Christmas period, 269,423 miles of wrapping paper are used every year, contributing to plastic ending up in landfill. Our new entirely plastic-free Christmas wrap and gift range means customers can have a more sustainable Christmas and we hope that cutting costs on gift bags and wrapping paper will help them in that.”
Christmas shoppers looking for plastic-free alternatives have never had more choice at Christmas. Paper gift wrap and gift bags are now widely available, whilst customers looking to send presents by post have alternative options to traditional plastic.
UK retailer Polybags offers an extensive range of paper mailing bags that provide a fantastic plastic-free alternative to traditional mailing bags, including a range of protective paper mailing bags that offer an eco-friendly alternative to bubble-lined mailers, whilst providing the same level of protection to contents.
Morrisons’ new plastic-free Christmas range is part of their bid to reduce plastic packaging by 50% by 2025, whilst making all of their own-brand plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable during the same time frame.
Image courtesy of Morrisons.
