With cold and flu season in full swing, Tesco is making a big change to its popular own brand pocket tissue multi-packs: The retailer is scrapping the plastic packaging and replacing it with recyclable paper, saving more than 55 million pieces of soft plastic.

As opposed to boxes of tissues, the pocket version tends to be used on the go, meaning the plastic packaging has a higher chance of ending up in the environment. So, from mid-December, both the individual packs and the wrap around the multi-packs of Tesco’s Gentle White and Balm tissues have started moving into paper packs certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FCS).

Tesco is the first supermarket to make the change to its own brand pocket tissues that will save almost 35 tons of new soft plastic being created each year.

Tesco Campaigns Manager Courtney Pallett said, “Unlike boxes of tissues, the pocket version tends to be used on the go and can all too easily become litter. The new paper packaging works just as well as the old plastic wrap but is more sustainable.”

Reducing the amount of plastic used in its UK business has seen Tesco remove nearly 2.2 billion pieces of plastic since 2019.

Plastic removed to date includes:

• 200+ million bags from Tesco.com deliveries
• 100+ million extra lids from products such as wipes, creams, yogurts, and desserts
• 75+ million tinned multipacks no longer plastic-wrapped
• 50 million pieces of plastic wrapping from cans of branded beers and ciders
• 50+ million pieces of plastic from greeting cards