Our plastic-free Christmas wrapping paper range

This Christmas, we're launching a plastic-free wrapping paper range.

We've removed the plastic film from around the rolls of our Christmas wrap, saving almost a million pieces of plastic as part of our continued commitment to sustainability, removing unnecessary plastic from our packaging and products.

Research by GWP Group shows consumers in the UK will use 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each year and that over 1032 miles of this will end up in waste bins.

Our new look Christmas wrapping paper is fully recyclable and provides a sustainable alternative to combat the huge amount of waste.

The full gifting range, including crackers, cards and accessories which are also 100% recyclable, with all ribbons changed to a cellulose based plastic free material and bag handles and cracker contents being changed to paper or a more sustainable option.

Continuing to lead the way on sustainability

In July, we announced the launch of Europe’s most extensive in-store recycling scheme for plastic bags and product wrapping. Recycling units for ‘soft’ plastics have launched in over 1,500 stores 2,300 stores by November.

The initiative ensures all Co-op’s own food packing is easily recyclable by establishing an accessible disposal route for materials which are unlikely to be collected by UK councils, including: crisp packets, bread bags, single-use carrier bags and bags-for-life, lids from ready meals and yogurt pots, biscuit wrappers and pet-food pouches.

We've been leading the way on removing plastic and unnecessary packaging, for instancing replacing plastic stems from cotton buds before any other retailer almost 15 years ago and removing black (so called ‘vanity’) plastic from our shelves in 2019.