Tesco, as part of a collaborative initiative with Faerch Group, to include a minimum 30% recycled tray content in its new core chilled ready meals trays; the recycled content comes from customer-recovered PET trays collected via European curbside waste

April 11, 2023 (press release) –

11 April 2023

In an industry first, Tesco has begun recycling used plastic food trays back into packaging - creating a fully circular packaging solution for its range of core chilled ready meals.

The change is in collaboration with leading packaging manufacturer Faerch and will see customer-recovered PET trays - collected via European kerbside waste - recycled and converted back into food grade plastic trays.

Tesco’s ready meal trays already contain up to 75% recycled content, predominantly from cleaner and easier to recycle bottle flake plastic. Through the new Tray 2 Tray by Faerch™ programme, a minimum of 30% recycled tray content will be included in the new core chilled ready meals trays.

A phased rollout of the new trays will take place in April across Tesco’s core own brand chilled ready meals. The collaboration will ensure that high quality food-grade PET is kept within the supply chain, rather than being downcycled, and demonstrates that PET packaging from trays can be fully recovered and recycled at an industrial scale.

Adele Kearns, Packaging Development Manager at Tesco, said: “We are determined to close the loop on our packaging – for it to be fully recyclable and contain recycled content wherever possible. We remain committed to reducing our environmental impact, and helping our customers to do the same, as we work together to protect our planet.”

Ruth Price, Strategic Sales Manager at Faerch UK, said: “We’re delighted to launch our Tray 2 Tray by Faerch™ programme with Tesco, an essential initiative that promotes circular food packaging in the economy, and we are committed to working with our customers to keep rigid food packaging in the economy and out of the environment. Our collaboration with Tesco is the perfect example of how material from EU waste resources can be diverted into a valuable commodity. Moving forward, our intention is to not only increase the level of tray-to-tray content but to also start taking this from local UK feedstocks”.

Tesco also works alongside suppliers to drive change across products – eliminating all hard-to-recycle material from UK packaging in 2019 - and supports industry action including the UK Plastics Pact, which tackles the impact of plastic waste.

Notes to editors:

About Faerch
• Faerch is a leading supplier of thermoformed food packaging, with more than 50 years experience in the industry. You can read more on its website: https://www.faerch.com/en

• Faerch’s PET tray recycling plant, Cirrec, takes used post-consumer food trays and recycles them back into new food trays of the same quality and in an infinite number of cycles.

• The amount of post-consumer recycled content in food packaging is a key indicator for sustainability and circularity, and consumers and legislators expect full transparency. Faerch uses independent third-party auditing to verify pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled content levels in food packaging, allowing for full transparency of the packaging content through certification.

Additional information
• The Tray 2 Tray by Faerch partnership will affect all Tesco’s core range of ready meals. Rollout of new recycled trays being used in products will commence from April 2023, and be completed by the end of Summer 2023.

• We aim to make this change across additional Tesco ready meal products, including Tesco Finest.

• By 2025, all Tesco packaging will be fully recyclable.

Tesco continues to follow its 4Rs strategy when it comes to plastic and packaging – to Remove it where we can, Reduce it where we can’t, Reuse more of it, and Recycle what’s left. Since launching the strategy in 2019, Tesco has removed over 1.7bn pieces of plastic within its own operations.

• You can read more about Tesco’s approach to plastic and approaching on its Tesco PLC website: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/planet/packaging-and-plastic/

• Lines that have changed or will change in the coming weeks are:

o SPINACH & RICOTTA CANNELLONI 400G
o TOMATO & MOZZARELLA PENNE 400G
o SPAGHETTI & MEATBALL 400G
o TUNA BAKE 400G
o BEEF LASAGNE 400G
o VEGETABLE LASAGNE 400G
o SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE 400G
o SPAGHETTI CARBONARA 400G
o HAM & MUSHROOM TAG 400G
o CHICKEN ARRAB 400G
o PEPPERONI PASTA BAKE 400G
o ITALIAN CHICKEN & BACON PASTA BAKE 400G
o MACARONI CHEESE 400G
o CHICKEN & CHORIZO PASTA 400G
o PESTO PASTA 400G
o LENTIL BAKE 400G
o ITALIAN CHICKEN & BACON PASTA BAKE 750G
o BEEF LASAGNE 750G
o MACARONI CHEESE 750g
o THREE CHEESE MELT 750G
o PEPPERONI PASTA 750G
o BEEF LASAGNE 1.5KG
o CHICKEN, TOMATO & MOZZARELLA 1.5KG
o CARBONARA PASTA BAKE 1.5KG
o BEEF LASAGNE 1.5KG
o CHICKEN, TOMATO & MOZZARELLA 1.5KG
o CARBONARA PASTA BAKE 1.5KG

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