UK supermarket Sainsbury’s has swapped its plastic tray packaging for new cardboard trays across its own-brand fish and chicken lines, expecting to save 694 tonnes of plastic a year.

In what the retailer called a “UK retailer first”, its own-brand salmon fillet trays will be switching from pulp cardboard instead of plastic, potentially resulting in 70% less plastic and saving 346 tonnes of plastic a year.

Sainsbury’s highlighted that it would also be rolling out cardboard trays across its Taste the Difference breaded fish fillets, aiming to save 48 tonnes of plastic a year.

The pulp cardboard trays from all salmon lines and cardboard trays across the breaded fish category will reportedly be recyclable at home, which Sainsbury’s said would help customers reduce their household waste.

Director of product and innovation at Sainsbury’s, Claire Hughes, said: “With salmon being one of our most popular fish, we made it a priority to reduce the plastic on the packaging of this much loved product as we work towards our Plan for Better goals.

“We are now the first retailer to make the move to have recycled pulp card trays across all our bySainsbury’s and Taste the Difference salmon products, enabling a whopping 70% plastic reduction. Together with changes to our breaded fish and chicken packaging, we are set to save 694 tonnes of plastic a year – a significant step towards our plastic reduction goals.”

The Good to Know logo has recently been launched by Sainsbury’s to help customers “find products that are more sustainable”, including those with reduced plastic packaging. The retailer said the logo is aimed to “help customers understand the retailer’s work around sustainability”, and it can be found on the latest packaging across its salmon products.