Britain’s largest supermarket, Tesco, is trialing a new way to cut down on plastics—lasering barcodes and product information directly onto products.
The trial applies only to avocados, which have risen in popularity in the U.K. over the last decade, with avocado on toast a particular delicacy for millennials. The company, ranked 34 in the latest Fortune 500 Europe list, sells close to 70 million of the oily fruits a year, up 15% in the last 12 months.
The company told the Daily Mail that if it extended the trial—currently limited to around 270 stores in southeast England—nationwide, it could prevent a million plastic stickers being used. In the same trial, conducted with a sole supplier, Westfalia Fruit, it is also replacing the plastic tray for avocado multi-packs with a cardboard alternative.
Why does this matter?
Sad though it is to admit, no one’s going to save the world with lasers alone. The far bigger problem will surely be from plastic packaging waste and the emissions associated with transporting the fruits to stores, whether from domestic producers or from farther afield.
It’s also the case that the idea only really applies to certain products—avocados have dark, thick skin that allows a light laser etching to be done both safely and clearly. The same doesn’t apply to, say, a peach.
But that doesn't mean laser-tattooing fruit is only a publicity stunt.
Ambitious sustainability goals are unlikely to be achieved by one or two grand, sweeping measures.
Instead, large numbers of smaller initiatives offer ways for businesses like Tesco—which like many others has a net-zero emissions target for 2050—to move incrementally but assuredly forward.
The group, for example, has reduced its scope 1 and 2 emissions—that is, not including end use of its products—by 61% since 2015, which will likely have been the result of lots of small changes.
What’s next?
Whether there is a plastic-label-free future for avocado-munching Brits depends on how the trial goes.
The bigger changes to watch out for concern alternatives to plastic packaging, from refill stations to packaging derived from things like kelp or cassava.
The technology hasn’t quite reached the level of competing with fossil-fuel-derived plastic packaging yet, but technological progress is happening all the time.
Regulation can move the dial, too, as the U.K.’s successful ban on free plastic shopping bags showed (Aldi is trying something similar in its U.S. stores).
As ever, it’s wise to be somewhat skeptical of what supermarkets, consumer packaged-goods companies, and others say about their efforts. But when you start noticing less plastic in your recycling or trash, and more things like laser-etched fruit, you’ll know they’re starting to pay off.
