Woolworths further reduces plastic packaging and reaffirms its commitment to a greener future

Amidst COVID-19, 70% of Australians are continuing to rank taking care of the planet and making sustainable choices as important to them, according to research revealed by Woolworths Group for World Environment Day.

To make it easier for customers to continue embracing a greener future, Woolworths has introduced a number of initiatives to further reduce plastic across a wider range of fruit and vegetables, including bananas, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, broccolini, sweet potatoes & organic

By moving out of plastic clamshell and into adhesive tape for bananas, replacing rigid plastic trays with pulp fibre on tomatoes, moving to a paper tag on broccolini and reducing plastic film by 30% in weight on carrots and potatoes, Woolworths has removed a further 237 tonnes of plastic packaging in the last year.

The tray Woolworths uses for its sweet potatoes and organic apples is now made of recycled cardboard, rather than plastic.

Woolworths has also commenced a trial of where it will switch plastic packaging in its popular Fresh Food Kids range of apples, pears and bananas to easy-to-recycle cardboard boxes.

Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said; “Something that was very surprising during COVID was the continued relevance of the environment, with 70% of Australians saying that taking care of the planet and making sustainable choices remained important to them, even at the height of the crisis.

“This is something that we’re equally passionate about and Woolworths remains as committed as ever to creating a greener future.

“While we’ve made pleasing progress in reducing the amount of plastic in our stores, supported recycling labelling initiatives, and made improvements in energy efficiency, sustainable sourcing and reducing food waste, we know there is still much more to be done to meet our customers and our own aspirations.”

Since Woolworths removed single-use plastic bags in 2018, more than 6 billion bags have been taken out of circulation. Earlier this week, Woolworths also started to offer paper shopping bags, made out of 70% recycled paper, for customers to purchase to carry their shopping home in.

In the past year, approx 10,600 shopping trolleys worth of soft plastics have been recycled through its in-store RedCycle program. Woolworths also removed a total of 890 tonnes of plastic from its fruit, vegetables and bakery ranges over the past two years.

100% of Woolworths stores now have food waste diversion partners in place and in the last year alone, the supermarket has diverted over 33,000 tonnes of food waste from landfill to our food relief partners or donated to farmers as feed stock.

¹ Source: Woolworths COVID-19 weekly tracking; online survey; nationally representative n=1,000

² Based on average 210-litre shopping trolley holding 130Kg

You can follow the progress to date and the changes being made at Woolworths at woolworths.com.au/greener.
For further information please contact Woolworths Media Relations on (02) 8885 1033

FACT SHEET

Further plastic reduction in the fruit & vegetables:

Woolworths will continue its ongoing program of plastic reduction in fruit and vegetables which has seen the removal of 237 tonnes of plastic in the last year in Australia.

In the last 6 months alone, Woolworths has reduced even further plastic packaging across its bananas, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, broccolini, sweet potatoes & organic apples:

• Bananas - 64 tonnes of plastic reduced by moving out of plastic clamshell into adhesive tape
• Carrots - 61 tons of plastic reduced by downgauging the film by 30% in weight.
• Tomatoes - 45 tons of plastic reduced by replacing rigid plastic trays with pulp fibre.
• Potatoes - 72 tons of plastic reduced by downgauging the film by 30% in weight.
• Broccolini - 19 tons of plastic removed moved into a paper tag.
• The tray Woolworths uses for its sweet potatoes and organic apples are now made of recycled cardboard, rather than plastic.

Other plastic reducing initiatives:

• Transitioning Woolworths own brand 600ml spring water bottles to recycled plastic content.
• Removing plastic straws from shelves - approx 134 million plastic straws removed from circulation
• Partnering with Loop from 2021, where Australian grocery shoppers will be able to receive products from their favourite brands in reusable containers, delivered right to their doors.
• Repurposing more than 1378 tonnes of soft plastics into useful items like outdoor furniture and benches for community groups and stores through its nationally available REDcycle program
• Woolworths was also the first supermarket to adopt the Australasian Recycling Labelling (ARL) on Own Brand products. Each label clearly tells the customer how best to dispose of each type of packaging, from plastic tubs to plastic film.

Reducing food waste initiatives:

• The Odd Bunch range at Woolworths, helps farmers sell more of their produce that may otherwise go to waste. Our customers have now bought over 156,000 tonnes of ‘The Odd Bunch’ fruit and vegetables since it launched in 2015.
• Last year we saved more than 33,000 tonnes of surplus food from going into landfill through our partnerships with hunger relief agencies, farmers and commercial composters. We now have food waste diversion partners in place at each and every store across Australia.
• Across Australia, we’ve been working closely with OzHarvest, Foodbank and FareShare to assist their hunger relief efforts and currently donate the equivalent of over 346,000 meals each week.
• Woolworths also recently became the sole retail partner of the $70 million Government funded food waste Co-operative Research Centre (CRC). The CRC was established to find new ways to reduce household food waste, which costs the average Aussie household up to $3,800 each year. It’s estimated $20 billion is lost to the economy through food waste each year.

Energy-saving initiatives:

• Woolworths Group will continue to invest in a range of initiatives to optimise energy use across stores, distribution centres and support offices. Investments are being made to switch all lighting in stores to LED, improve efficiency in refrigeration and air conditioning, with over 120 Woolworths Group sites (Supermarkets, Endeavour Drinks, Big W) with solar panels installed. The reductions in the past year is enough electricity to power more than 10,000+ homes. Woolworths has also installed 400kW PV solar and 250kW / 500kWh Tesla Powerpack battery at the Sydney Liquor Distribution Centre.
• We will reduce our emissions by 60% by 2030 compared to our 2015 baseline.