Environment

Morrisons has become the second UK supermarket, after Sainsbury’s, to adopt Innovia Films’ biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging for its organic produce.

Innovia has supplied NatureFlex NVS film to ASP Packaging in Watford for conversion for Morrisons produce, particularly tomatoes.

Morrisons’ move comes a month after Sainsbury’s said it had changed more than 500 product lines to biopackaging, some using Innovia films, with the aim of saving 4,000 tonnes of fossil-based plastics a year.

ASP Packaging sales director Alan Campbell said the firm was printing the ‘seedling’ logo, which shows that packaging is certified as being compostable, on NatureFlex NVS material tailored to Morrisons’ pack design.

“We then micro-perforate the film to tailor gas permeability to the requirements of the produce and slit it into the required widths,” he added. “The material is then used to wrap organic products, specifically tomatoes.”

ASP also works with Sainsbury’s, and Campbell said there had been a big push from other supermarkets to follow its lead in biodegradable packaging.

“The other multiples cannot be seen to be behind,” he said.

Andy Sweetman, Innovia’s market development manager for sustainable technologies, said biodegradable materials were most suitable for packaging chilled foods and produce with a short shelf life.

However, Innovia has also developed coating technologies to formulate the material for confectionery and feminine hygiene products.

Sweetman also said it would be possible in the future to produce laminate structures in which one or two different biodegradable films could be used to provide a material to pack products where moisture ingress is an issue, such as crisps and snacks.

Although bioplastics currently account for less than 1% of total plastics consumption in Europe, extra demand from UK retailers should accelerate growth in 2007.