News

Compostable packaging is probably one the most confusing areas ever for packaging specifiers and consumers alike.

Asda has extensively researched these materials, the applications for which they are suitable, performance capabilities and constraints, as well as end-of-life disposal.

We have concluded that it is a really grey area, where specifiers of packaging have to feel their way to the end of tunnel without much in the way of clear light.

At the end of that tunnel we decided not to use compostable packaging at Asda. This is a unique strategy and position, when all other retailers are falling over themselves to spout their green credentials by introducing compostable packaging.

Compostable materials have huge performance limitations, are often derived from GM crops and contaminate existing waste streams.

Only 3% of the population are regular composters, leaving 97% that cannot dispose of home-compostable material.

And industrially-compostable materials fare even worse, as not one single local authority will collect them for composting. In fact, I believe one local authority in the Bristol area is considering specifically banning them from green waste collections.

With no disposal route for these icons of sustainability, customers are left with no choice but to send them to landfill, where, being biodegradable and anaerobically buried, they break down to create methane, which as a greenhouse gas is proven to be 23 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. It doesn’t feel like a great thing to be doing for customers or the planet.

That’s why at Asda we believe that giving our customers less packaging, increasing the amount of recycled content that we use and working with central government, local authorities, NGOs and industry to improve recycling infrastructure is the much smarter and more sustainable way to go.

Shane Monkman
Packaging buyer
Asda