Iceland boss calls on restaurants to ditch single use plastic sachets

A supermarket boss has called on restaurants to ditch single use plastic sachets.

Richard Walker, the Managing Director of Flintshire-based Iceland Frozen Food, is urging them to use bottles and dispensers instead.

Almost 855 billion sachets are used globally each year, containing single portions of everything from ketchup and vinegar to face cream, shampoo, and laundry detergent.

Plastic sachets are tricky to recycle because they contain layers of plastic film, so the vast majority end up in landfill or as litter.

Iceland was the first supermarket to sign up to the worldwide Carbon Pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040, ten years ahead of the UK Government’s 2050 target.

Walker succeeded his father, Malcolm, at the head of the £4 billion food giant, which has over 1,000 stores across the UK and Ireland.

On Twitter he said: “Pre-pandemic, enough of these recyclable, single-used sachets were produced every year that they could wrap around the entire planet.

“Now it must be much worse. As things return to normal, it’d be great if restaurants could #sackthesachet  and go back to bottles & dispensers.”

Some companies prefer boosting recycling rates of sachets over a ban.

For example, consumer goods firm Unilever has developed technology it says can successfully recycle sachets in South East Asia.

However, it is still working on developing a viable way of collecting the sachets.

Meanwhile, takeaway firm Just Eat is trialling ketchup and mayoinnaise sachets made from seaweed, which decompose in just a few weeks.