MD of Deeside based Iceland calls for restaurants to ‘sack the sachet’

The managing director of Deeside based Iceland Foods has called restaurants to stop using single-use sachets of condiments such as tomato ketchup and go back to using bottles and dispensers.

Many hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants moved to use single-use sachets during the pandemic to allay any hygiene fears customers may have had.

A campaign launched last year called “Sack the Sachet,” highlighted that if you put a year’s worth of single-use sachets end-to-end, they would reach the moon 189 times.

The 855 billion packets used annually house everything from condiments such as ketchup to personal care products like shampoo “are almost always unrecyclable and go straight to a landfill.” A Plastic Planet claims.

Iceland boss Richard Walker was one of 50 business leaders, politicians and campaigners who wrote to the UK government calling for a “legal loophole​” which means plastic sachets, such as those used in single doses of product including ketchup, can be sold in vast quantities without any restrictions.

Mr Walker tweeted on Sunday: “Pre-pandemic, enough of these non-recyclable, single-use sachets were produced every year that they could wrap around the entire planet. Now it must be much worse. As things return to normal, it’d be great if restaurants could #sackthesachet and go back to bottles & dispensers.”

Pre-pandemic, enough of these non-recyclable, single-use sachets were produced every year that they could wrap around the entire planet. Now it must be much worse. As things return to normal, it’d be great if restaurants could #sackthesachet and go back to bottles & dispensers. pic.twitter.com/3O27STw11z

— Richard Walker (@icelandrichard) August 22, 2021

Welsh Conservative have backed Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, said:

“It was right that to get our hospitality sector re-open during the pandemic that restaurants took the necessary precautions to reduce the spread of coronavirus by using sachets.

“However, we must not lose sight that it is fundamental that we all play our part in tackling climate change and saving our planet, more so now than ever before.

“Richard’s idea of scrapping plastic sachets, which are very tricky to recycle, and returning to bottles and dispensers, is simple yet effective.

“Anything we can do to cut back on single-use plastic is welcome, and I implore restaurants across Wales to look at more environmentally friendly ways of working.”