Tesco to launch ‘tubeless’ kitchen foil

This product will be launched this week nationwide.

The supermarket highlights that move is aligned with its commitment to minimising unnecessary packaging and will result in a reduction of 330 tonnes of cardboard waste each year.

This move comes as part of Tesco’s 4Rs packaging strategy to tackle the impact of packaging waste. Since 2020, the supermarket states it has reduced packaging by over 4,500 tonnes.

Revolutionised

Technical manager at Tesco, Bronwen Williams said: “This new machine has revolutionised foil production, saving hundreds of tonnes of cardboard from needlessly being made in the first place.

“We are continually looking at ways in which we can cut down on packaging in order to help the environment and hope, after starting with our top selling kitchen foil line, that we will be able to apply this to the rest of our foil range.”

Invention

The cardboard core-less foil is created using a “rolling machine” that tightly rolls the aluminium foil around a spindle equipped with air vents. The introduction of air into these vents enables the gentle release of the aluminium foil, eliminating the need for a traditional cardboard core.

In addition to toilet roll, the retailer launched luxury soft toilet rolls and kitchen towel crafted from recycled cardboard sourced from home delivery boxes, toilet roll tubes, and corrugated card waste last week. It states that this process uses less water and energy, compared to paper made with traditional tree fibre.

This move comes as part of Tesco’s 4Rs packaging strategy to tackle the impact of packaging waste. Since 2020, we’ve reduced packaging by over 4,500 tonnes.

Tesco has also in a previous initiative two years ago, introduced toilet rolls with double the amount of paper, which it says will result in a saving of nearly 70 tonnes of plastic packaging annually.

The company achieved this by either increasing the amount of paper on each roll or winding the rolls more tightly to reduce space.