Argos and Homebase to deliver sofas in reusable bubble-wrap bag

Home Retail Group, which owns Argos and Homebase, said sofas are typically shipped in around 3kg of packaging and the UK disposes of 15,000 tonnes of packaging waste from furniture each year.

The decision to adopt the sofa bag comes after several years of testing in conjunction with Wrap and will help reduce the amount of packaging consumers have to deal with at no additional cost.

Commercial director Maria Thompson said it demonstrated the firm’s commitment to reducing waste to landfill.

“We believe that there are clear benefits for the environment, the business and our customers by using reusable and recyclable packaging and from reducing the amount of packaging associated with our products,” she said.

The bag is essentially a folded bubble wrap envelope with an LDPE outer cover and non-woven PP inner lining that comes in four sizes. It will be inspected and cleaned between each use.

It is being manufactured in the Far East by Atlas Bubble and, consequently, will initially be used to ship sofas manufactured there, before being used for those made in Europe and the UK.

Atlas Bubble partner Mike Coughland said the bag ticked all the boxes for furniture protection, reuse and handling and was totally recyclable down plastics recycling streams.

Wrap retail programme manager Mike Robey said: “Our experience of reusable packaging indicates the benefits are three-fold: environmental, consumer convenience and cost.”

The bags are being introduced this months and the move comes just under half a year after Home Retail Group became one of the founding signatories of the Home Improvement Sector Commitment (HISC) to look at the industry’s waste.

To read Packaging News‘ analysis of the HISC, click here.

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