Sainsbury’s goes TRAYLESS on whole chickens in change that will save 10M pieces of plastic…

If you’re planning to cook a roast chicken over the Easter weekend, you might be in for a surprise while doing the supermarket shop. 

Sainsbury’s has announced that its ‘by Sainsbury’s’ whole chicken range is now trayless. 

The retailer is removing the single-use plastic trays from its packaging, in a change that it says will save over 10 million pieces of plastic a year. 

To put that into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 140 tonnes – 20 times the weight of an elephant – of plastic annually. 

‘The trayless products are available in all stores across the UK and online, helping to reduce the amount of single-use plastic customers have to dispose of at home,’ the retail giant explained. 

The shocking extent of the plastic crisis: 4.9 MILLION tonnes of rubbish are floating in our oceans, experts warn – READ MORE

A new study has shed fresh light on the shocking extent of the global plastic crisis 

Five products are affected by the change – the XS, S, M, L and XL whole chickens in the ‘by Sainsbury’s’ range.   

The plastic tray has been ditched in favour of film packaging, which can be recycled at one of Sainsbury’s front-of-store recycling points. 

In 2019, Sainsbury’s pledged to halve plastic packaging by 2025 by introducing refillable cartons and bottles for everything from milk to breakfast cereals, pasta and laundry liquid.  

Speaking at the time, Chief executive Mike Coupe said: ‘Reducing plastic and packaging is not easy. 

‘Packaging plays a vital role in keeping our food safe and fresh and minimising food waste.

‘We must therefore find alternatives to plastic that protect the quality of our food while minimising our impact on the environment.’

Since then, Sainsbury’s has taken several measures to slash its plastic use. 

This includes removing the plastic lids from its dip pots, replacing the plastic used in its own brand two-litre ice cream tubs and removing the plastic film from its broccoli.  

The news comes shortly after a new study shed fresh light on the shocking extent of the global plastic crisis. 

Researchers have discovered that as much as 4.9 million tonnes of plastic rubbish are floating in our oceans – an ‘unprecedented increase’ since 2005. 

And without immediate action, they predict that the rate at which plastics enter our waters will increase a whopping 2.6 times by 2040. 

‘This is a stark warning that we must act now at a global scale,’ said Marcus Eriksen, co-founder and researcher from The 5 Gyres Institute. 

‘We need a strong, legally binding UN Global Treaty on plastic pollution that stops the problem at the source.’

The plastic tray (stock image) has been ditched in favour of film packaging, which can be recycled at one of Sainsbury’s front-of-store recycling points

Eight million tonnes of plastics find their way into the ocean every year

Of 30 billion plastic bottles used by UK households each year, only 57 per cent are currently recycled.

With half of these going to landfill, half of all plastic bottles that are recycled go to waste.

Around 700,000 plastic bottles a day end up as litter.

This is largely due to plastic wrapping around bottles that are non-recyclable.

Bottles are a major contributor to the increasing amount of plastic waste in the world’s oceans. 

Researchers warned eight million tonnes of plastics currently find their way into the ocean every year – the equivalent of one truckload every minute. 

The amount of plastic rubbish in the world’s oceans will outweigh fish by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to further recycle, a report released in 2016 revealed. 

At current rates, this will worsen to four truckloads per minute in 2050 and outstrip native life to become the largest mass inhabiting the oceans.

An overwhelming 95 per cent of plastic packaging – worth £65 – £92billion – is lost to the economy after a single use, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation report stated.

And available research estimates that there are more than 150 million tonnes of plastics in the ocean today.

Plastic pollution is ruining the ecosystems of the world, both marine and terrestrial. It litters shorelines, snags animals and suffocates entire populations of animals  

So much plastic is dumped into the sea each year that it would fill five carrier bags for every foot of coastline on the planet, scientists have warned. 

More than half of the plastic waste that flows into the oceans comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. 

The only industrialized western country on the list of top 20 plastic polluters is the United States at No. 20. 

The US and Europe are not mismanaging their collected waste, so the plastic trash coming from those countries is due to litter, researchers said.

While China is responsible for 2.4 million tons of plastic that makes its way into the ocean, nearly 28 percent of the world total, the United States contributes just 77,000 tons, which is less than one percent, according to the study published in the journal Science.