Waitrose has announced that it will take a further step in eliminating unnecessary packaging by almost halving the single-use plastic on all its own brand Easter eggs and confectionery.

Thousands of own brand Easter eggs arriving on shelves this month will have their plastic packaging reduced by 44%. Card packaging across the range has also been reduced by 18% compared to last year, meaning a quarter less packaging overall for the Easter confectionery range.

Much of the Easter egg packaging will also be made from recycled materials, including the Waitrose Squiggle Eggs and Milk Chocolate Hen with Speckled Eggs which are made from 80% recycled content. 99.7% of the Easter range packaging is also now widely recycled.

Waitrose also recently topped Greenpeace’s annual league table of UK supermarkets for efforts to reduce single-use plastics across its shops and products.

Claire Shrewsbury, Acting Director Insights and Innovation at WRAP, says: “We are delighted by this positive move by Waitrose to further reduce single use plastics. Developing solutions to tackle unnecessary packaging and single use plastics is a priority of the UK Plastics Pact.”

Christina Capellaro, Packaging Development Manager, Waitrose, says: “For many years, Easter eggs have been wrapped in foil, protected in plastic and covered in cardboard. To many, this seems excessive and is an area where we know we can make a real difference. So this Easter, our customers can enjoy the same great taste with less packaging.”

This latest initiative to reduce packaging and remove single-use plastic moves Waitrose closer to its pledge to make all packaging either widely recycled, reusable or home compostable by 2023.

Waitrose is also offering cutting out single use plastic from its seasonal range of mugs, plates, cups and decorations which can all be reused. The Easter horticulture range is also glitter free for the second year.

Waitrose pioneered the launch of its refillable range in some of its shops in 2019 with ‘Waitrose Unpacked’ to test demand from consumers for packaging free shopping and recently became the first supermarket to integrate its refillable range into the aisles of its shops.