Plastic Bags Completely Banned at Iceland's Hackney Store

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Supermarket chain Iceland, as part of its efforts to fight plastic pollution, announced its decision to ban plastic bags at its Hackney, London store. This makes the Hackney store the first plastic-free store.

During this trial period, the store will offer complete range of plastic-free alternatives to customers. The shoppers will be offered alternative extra-strong paper bags at 15p per bag. In addition, lightweight paper carry bags will be available for 10p. The store will also provide jute carrier bags and Disney branded cotton bags for £1 per bag to needy customers. Meat products from the store will also be packed in small paper bags.

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Simultaneously, Iceland also announced a trial covering 25 stores in North Wales, Wirral, and Cheshire, where 15p paper bags will be offered alongside 15p plastic bags for life. The trial will be expanded to additional 15 stores in the Manchester area from August 10^th onwards. These trials are aimed at determining customer preferences and their responses to various alternative packaging solutions, which in turn will determine Iceland’s future plans to completely eliminate plastic bags from all of its stores. It must be noted that Iceland has already committed to remove all plastic from its own-label packaging by end-2023.

Both the trials will run for six months.

Richard Walker, Managing Director, Iceland stated that over 1.2 billion plastic bags for life were consumed in the UK in 2018. A good majority of these bags are used only once, after which they are discarded.