M&S Stays Committed to PLA

An M&S spokeswoman said the company is moving some of its desserts and produce lines from PLA to rPET, but will continue to use PLA for the windows of its cardboard sandwich packs.

26/11/08 Marks & Spencer remains committed to the use of bioplastics in packaging, despite moving some product lines from PLA to recycled PET.

An M&S spokeswoman said the company is moving some of its desserts and produce lines from PLA to rPET, but will continue to use PLA for the windows of its cardboard sandwich packs – some 100 million sandwiches per week.

The majority of plastics used for packaging by M&S are PET, PP and PE and some other materials such as PLA are used where relevant.

The spokeswoman said: "We recognise that plastics are particularly complex in terms of recycling and we are therefore committed to simplifying the number of plastics we use."

Under Plan A, M&S is committed to only using recyclable or compostable packaging by 2012 and to increase the use of sustainable raw materials in its packaging.

The first step taken by the company was to remove all PVC from its food packaging by 1 January 2000.