Reducing use of plastics and packaging

Sir, – I agree with Andy Pollak (Letters, September 27th) and would like to assure all your readers that at Tesco we are working hard to reduce the use of plastics and packaging through working with suppliers and by minimising packaging in our own-label products.

Our target is to ensure we never use more packaging than is needed.

Where we need packaging, because it serves a clear purpose like reducing food waste or to protect a product in transit, we do our best to ensure that what we do use is from sustainable sources and, where possible, goes on to be reused or recycled.

We have set challenging targets that will deliver a step-change in how much packaging waste we generate: by the end of 2019 we will end the use of hard to recycle materials (for example PVC and polystyrene) from our own-brand packaging and by 2025 all our packaging will be fully recyclable, all our paper and board will be 100 per cent sustainable, and we will halve packaging weight in our business.

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We recognise we have more to do, and we are challenging ourselves indeed to do much more. – Yours, etc,

KARI DANIELS,

Chief Executive,

Tesco Ireland,

Dun Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.