Co-op has today, 19th December, announced it’s launching an own-brand kitchen towel made from 100 percent recycled content, including recycled cardboard.
The UK’s leading convenience retailer is the first to announce this launch, which will be one of the largest ‘roll’ outs of its kind to 1,000 of its stores, in early 2024, as part of its Honest Value range. The new line will save 230 tonnes of pure pulp, which is currently the most common material in the market used to manufacture kitchen towels.
Working with its supplier, WEPA, this Co-op product is a new blend of recycled materials made from 70 percent cardboard fibres – such as brown boxes used for home deliveries – while the remaining 30 percent is recycled fibres from sorted office waste.
Historically, this confidential office waste was utilised as the main source of recycled fibre to create recycled paper products, however, due to the pandemic and resulting changes to working behaviours, sorted office waste has drastically declined.
The new fibre source for this product – which is also a direct impact of the pandemic with people receiving more home deliveries – comes from brown cardboard fibres, which gives the kitchen towel its pale beige colour. The change in colour, alongside reassurance of the quality and absorbency of the product, will be communicated with on-pack messaging.
Janet Lawrence, technical manager at Co-op, said: “This product directly supports a circular recycling economy, which we champion at Co-op, helping us to achieve our sustainability goals. The clever use of cardboard fibres, which are more abundant in UK post-pandemic, is such a great message. We understand customers might be confused by the beige colouring of the kitchen towel, when they are used to white, but we want to reassure shoppers that this product has the same absorbency and quality as the previous line.”
The new own-brand kitchen towel will be five percent cheaper than the current Honest Value SKU and will retail at £1.85, landing in stores in Q1 of 2024.
A spokesperson from WEPA revealed: “We are delighted to be working with Co-op to bring this new innovation to so many shoppers. With listings in 1,000 stores, consumers across the country will soon be able to enjoy the same great absorbency and strength as their previous kitchen towel, whilst also using recycled materials. The current recycled market equates to only 1.3% of total UK sales. Pure pulp remains an essential part of the supply mix when sourced from FSC certified forests. However, using recycled cardboard fibres is a great way to utilise an increasingly abundant raw material that would otherwise be discarded at the end of its life.”
This announcement re-affirms Co-op’s sustainability and ethical commitments, as it follows several initiatives by the convenience retailer in recent times, including the removal of plastic and glitter from its Christmas celebration range. Additionally, in 2021, Co-op announced that all its own brand food packaging is 100% recyclable, linked to its in-store recycling scheme for soft plastics. Furthermore, all of Co-op’s own-brand still, sparkling, flavoured water, carbonated drinks and mixers are made out of 100% recycled material, meaning they’re fully recycled and recyclable.
