Snap, crackle and ... crumbs? Are cereal boxes toast, now?

Sainsbury’s continue to seek ways to improve their green credentials, and to cut the amount of wasteful packaging on their goods. The Sunday Times reported that they introduced ‘milk-in-a-bag’ – polythene bags containing 2 litres of milk which can be transferred to a jug-style holder, and which have 75% less packaging than the rigid plastic bottles. Their next move has been to take some own-brand cereal out of cardboard boxes, and on Friday they introduced their own brand of Rice Pops in recyclable plastic packets similar to those used for crisps.

Kelloggs say they are considering doing the same, although Nestle have no plans to do so at present. A problem with the plastic bag for cereal is keeping it from being crushed either on the way to the supermarket or on the way home – but we manage to do this with packets of crisps, so presumably we can manage it for cereals as well. Reducing the volume of packaging is certainly to the advantage of the supermarkets, as it cuts the space used per pack in it’s delivery lorries so fewer lorries are needed, cutting both their costs and their carbon emissions.

Sainsbury’s polled more than 1,000 customers to draw up a list of the 10 worst packaged products - so this is a market-led initiative. Packaging for fruit and vegetables came up as the item with the most wasteful packaging and Waitrose have already replaced the lids of their rigid containers for some (but not all) fruit with heat-sealed film. Sainsbury’s plan to do the same, and say this will save 330 tons of plastic each year on strawberry lids alone and will keep fruit fresh for longer. However they still have some way to go to replace all plastic packaging with the recyclable brown paper bags from fruit and vegetables that are used in French village markets – which is where most French shoppers habitually go to buy products of the highest quality.

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

- Each Briton eats on average 14lb of cereal a year – equivalent to more than 300 Weetabix biscuits, the most popular brand
- Some 2.8m bowls of Corn Flakes are consumed every day. The cardboard packaging produced each year from Corn Flakes alone amounts to more than 5,000 tons. Each box weighs about 3oz
- Overall, the UK disposes of an estimated 10m tons of packaging a year