High street retailer Boots has taken a step to help the environment by removing a commonly used product from its shelves. The move, which follows Aldi's lead, will see all wet wipes that contain plastic banned from Boots' stores.
Instead, the pharmacy chain will only stock biodegradable ones. Boots, which sold more than 800 million wet wipes in the last year, said it would replace plastic-based wipes with plant-based biodegradable alternatives. It comes after the company reformulated its home-brand wipe ranges to remove plastic.
Many of the 11 billion wet wipes used by UK consumers every year still contain some form of plastic, according to the Marine Conservation Society. Evidence also suggests they are the cause of more than nine in 10 blockages in the country's sewers. Boots is one of the biggest sellers of wet wipes in the UK, with more than 140 different lines stocked across several categories.
