UK-based retailer Sainsbury has reduced the weight of its own-brand packaging by 7% to 12,000 tonnes in 2010, through new packaging design.
The company said the reductions are part of its effort to reduce packaging weight by a third by 2015 compared to 2009 levels, and the overall weight dropped by 11% since the target was set.
Sainsbury has reduced the outer sleeves size of its Taste the Difference ready meals by 45%, leading to an annual saving of 5,500 tonne of cartonboard.
The retailer has also introduced heat-seal lids on soft fruit lines to cut 440 tonne of packaging weight annually, and reduced Easter egg packaging by 57% since 2008.
The company has removed cartons from canned Ventresca tuna fillets to reduce packaging weight by 20% and save 880 kg of cardboard each year, as well as reduced the cardboard on pizza base mix, saving 87% packaging weight or 8,900kg each year.
