MORRISONS has launched a lower environmental impact store with the potential for its initiatives and designs to be rolled out nationwide.
Launched in Little Clacton, the store will house the supermarket’s ‘widest range’ of no plastic products. Morrisons said the line will be priced the same or less than their standard equivalents and will allow customers to half the amount of plastic in their weekly shop.
It includes 70 products – such as pasta, coffee, home baking, pulses, and herbs – in refill hoppers; a loose bakery with 57 plastic-free breads and buns; a frozen loose fruit, bread, and pantry pick and mix section; 14 loose pet foods; and 110 plastic-free products at the meat, fish, and deli counters.
Morrisons said the store will be ‘almost zero waste’ and will allow customers to return their waste. A wide range of recycling points will be offered for soft plastics, batteries, ink cartridges, cartons, glass, and textiles. It will also offer ‘magic bags’ which include £10 worth of fruit, veg, deli, and bakery products for £3.09 in a bid to cut food waste.
The store was built using environmental construction, with Morrisons revealing that it has recycled 99% of the demolition from the previous Little Clacton store in the new build. A new rainwater harvesting system will be used to flush the store’s toilets, as well as a wildlife area being created in the grounds to offer a home to birds, insects, and small animals.
David Potts, CEO of Morrisons, said, “This store is a significant step forward on our sustainability journey. It brings together all of the environmental and social initiatives we have created that can be rolled out into other stores across the country. It will start to inform the design of many more similar stores to come.”
