Teapigs and Supermarkets Team Up to Launch 'Plastic Free' Consumer Label

This should make it a whole lot easier to avoid plastic packaging.

UK supermarket chain Iceland already made waves when it promised to go plastic-free by 2023. Now it's teaming up with plastics campaigners A Plastic Planet, Dutch grocery store chain Ekoplaza—of plastic-free aisle fame—and tea brand Teapigs to launch a plastic-free consumer label.

It's a pretty important move.

While many of us have taken steps to skip the straw and refill our water bottles, avoiding plastic in the grocery store can be a whole lot trickier. Even when you buy an item in a cardboard package, for example, it's not unusual to get it home, open it and discover there's another layer of clear plastic packaging on the inside.

Products carrying the Plastic Free Trust Mark will include materials such as carton board, wood pulp, glass, metal and certified-compostable biomaterials. Plastic Planet co-founder Sian Sutherland explained why the time has come for such a label:

“Now we all know the damage our addiction to plastic has caused, we want to do the right thing and buy plastic-free. But it is harder than you think and a clear no-nonsense label is much needed. Our Trust Mark cuts through the confusion of symbols and labels and tells you just one thing – this packaging is plastic-free and therefore guilt-free. Finally shoppers can be part of the solution not the problem.”

Meanwhile, according to Business Green, Iceland's Managing Director Richard Walker used the occasion to put some not-so-subtle pressure on his peers in the retail industry:

"With the grocery retail sector accounting for more than 40 per cent of plastic packaging in the UK, it's high time that Britain's supermarkets came together to take a lead on this issue. I'm proud to lead a supermarket that is working with A Plastic Planet to realise a plastic-free future for food and drink retail."