Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s (London; www.sainsburys.co.uk) has said it will save 450 t of plastic a year by retailing all of its beef mince products in vacuum packaging. The move, which it claims is a UK first, will use a minimum of 55% less plastic than its traditional, plastic tray packaging.

Related: Sainsbury’s scheme for customers to recycle flexible packaging waste

Sainsbury’s recently announced the removal of single-use plastic lids across a number of its own-brand dairy products, including yoghurt, crème fraiche, sour cream, cream, cottage cheese, custard and dip pots, saving 71 mn pieces of plastic per year. The group said the moves were part of a long-term plan to halve its use of plastic packaging in own brand products by 2025.

Other supermarket chains are making similar strides in this direction. In Germany, for example, the Schwarz group, with its retail chains Lidl and Kaufland, is making progress implementing its REset Plastic strategy, which aims to use 20% fewer plastics by 2025, among other goals.