You told us you didn’t like our plastic magazine wrappers – we listened and agreed. After research and testing, we’ve decided a compostable potato-based wrapper is the one for us. What do you think?
Last year we reported that each UK household creates 55kg of plastic waste a year, before taking the supermarkets to task and offering advice on how to reduce your plastic footprint.
At the time, however, we also knew that there was something we could do to reduce ours.
The plastic wrapper that our magazines were delivered in was recyclable, but usually only if you took it to a supermarket and disposed of it along with carrier bags.
Reducing our own plastic footprint
Some councils take magazine wrappers as part of their kerbside collections, but many don’t.
While we acknowledged this problem in our article, and announced that we’d be testing a more environmentally friendly wrapper, some of you pointed out the irony of plastic preaching wrapped in problematic packaging.
"How to reduce your plastic footprint"
Er.
Stop buying magazines wrapped in plastic?
@WhichUK time for some joined up thinking….#2minutebeachclean pic.twitter.com/cUXRrPPl5s
— Martin Dorey (@campervanliving) July 21, 2018
Introducing our new potato-starch wrapper
I’m thrilled to let you know that our testing was successful and we’ve now rolled out a new potato-starch wrapper that’s fully compostable and can be put in food or garden bins.
Last year, so many of you let us know how unhappy you were that our magazines came wrapped in plastic.
We heard you loud and clear.
Today, we are delighted to announce that all of our magazines now come wrapped in packaging made from environmentally friendly potato starch.
— Which? (@WhichUK) May 21, 2019
It breaks down into CO2, water and biomass within 12 to 18 weeks and complies with European standards on composting and biodegradability.
Some of you have already got it as part of our tests – thanks for your feedback, which gave us confidence that it’s up to the job.
Why can't this be done everywhere? Single use plastics should be mostly confined to history. Nice one @WhichUK . pic.twitter.com/OuV02mbhZK
— Sir William Lord (@EnglandSquire) April 26, 2019
We still had a surplus of the old wrappers, so we used them in April, and for about half of our May mailings, but from our June issue onwards everyone will receive the new wrapper.
I’m confident our new wrapper is the cream of the crop, but I’d like to hear from you. Have you got any feedback on the new wrapper? Do you have ideas for other ways we can be more sustainable?
Let me know in the comments below.