Sainsbury’s has pledged to halve is plastic use by 2025 and announced new initiatives aimed to reduce its environmental impact. 

The supermarket is planning to sell milk and fizzy drinks in returnable glass bottles as part of the plans to reduce the 120,000 tonnes of plastic it gets through each year.

The second biggest supermarket in the UK is to focus on its own brand products to accelerate a reduction in plastic after the businesss only managed to reduce plastic waste by 1% last year.

Sainsbury’s chief executive, Mike Coupe, said the company “urgently needed to reduce its impact on the planet”.

“We must therefore find alternatives to plastic that protect the quality of our food while minimising our impact on the environment,” he said.

Sainsbury’s plans to move towards glass, lighter plastics and refillable items. 

It’s looking to cut out plastic for fruit and veg and containers for fizzy drinks, milk cartons, water and fruit juice. 

Consumers will also need to be prepared to change their behaviour to reduce their environmental impact, the supermarket explained. 

The UK’s supermarkets generate 800,000 tonnes of plastic every year. Sainsbury’s came at the bottom of Greenpeace’s 2018 table for plastic policies among supermarkets. 

Louise Edge, head of Greenpeace UK’s ocean plastics campaign, said in a statement:  “This is a victory for the tens of thousands of customers who lobbied them to do better. Huge plastic reduction and bringing in refillable packaging at scale are vital to tackling the plastic pollution crisis.”

• Read: Asda launches plant-based ‘food coating’ to cut plastic and food waste

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