Iceland pledges to go plastic neutral next year

At the same time, the supermarket will continue its effort to be plastic-free in its own-label products.

In order to make sure it becomes plastic neutral Iceland has linked up with the organization Seven Clean Seas, a plastic off-setter that works by pulling plastic directly out of the ocean.

Iceland managing director Richard Walker said he would like a standardised system of measuring plastic recovery to ensure that businesses could measure and demonstrate clearly what they were doing.

He said: “The UN Global Assessment of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution is stark –plastic pollution is out of control and a major threat ecologically, to our climate and to human health.

“We are committed on our journey to become plastic-free across our own label range, but we need to do more than that and we need to do it immediately.

We all know that, in the long term, the industry cannot recycle or offset its way out of the plastic crisis and, while we remain firmly fixed on plastic reduction, this is another important milestone in our journey to becoming plastic-free.

“I would ask our other supermarkets to urgently consider becoming plastic neutral as they too look to turn down the tap on plastic production altogether.”