The Swedish supermarket ICA is getting rid of plastic labelling on fruit and vegetables and instead using lasers to add marks directly onto the skin of products.
The trial is being pushed as an answer to growing demand from consumers for less packaging in the supermarket.
Loosing sticky labels on products might not seem like a big move but the ICA business unit manager, Peter Hagg, explained to The Guardian that what seems like a small move can have a big impact.
“By using natural branding on all the organic avocados we would sell in one year we will save 200km (135 miles) of plastic 30cm wide. It’s small but I think it adds up.”
Under EU rules all items need to be marked, which is why stickers are used on loose produce. The people behind the laser marking technology are hoping to replace all of this plastic with their technology that removes pigment from the skin in more carbon friendly way than producing stickers.
