Bye to Plastic Straws, Plus a plan to remove more plastic

Today we celebrate World Environment Day by making further two commitments to show our dedication to being a green brand in more ways than one.

We are proud to announce that we are committing to an industry pledge towards using 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging in all our brand products by 2025 or earlier.

To celebrate signing the pledge, and as part of our wider commitment to reduce unnecessary plastic, we have also announced we will be removing single-use plastic straws from our stores by 1 October 2018.

Kristy Abbott, FreshChoice Marketing Manager says "as a group, we sell more than 11 million individual plastic straws each year, most of which are almost impossible to recycle due to their size and weight. The switch to paper or plastic straws is one small change all New Zealanders can make in order to create a difference".

"These two announcements are on top of our pledge to remove single use plastic carrier bags from checkouts before the end of the year" says Abbott.

In the interim, we are currently taking part in a number of initiatives to benefit the environment, including paper bags being used for all Click & Collect orders and recyclable meat trays are in use at all stores.

At FreshChoice, we value our customers and are committed to saving our local shoppers money and helping the planet.