Toilet roll-rolling the way to improved environmental performance

By changing the packaging of its toilet rolls, Sainsbury's will take 500 lorries off the road each year, helping to reduce carbon emissions.

The UK retailer is the first company to make the move to reduce the diameter of the inner cardboard tube on every roll by 12 mm, cutting the number of delivery lorries required by the equivalent of 140,000 kg of CO₂. The paper in Sainsbury's toilet rolls has been 100% FSC certified for many years and the cardboard tube has also been certified since September 2011, as the Household & Pet team continued to look for new ways to improve the sustainability of its products.

As part of its 20 by 20 Sustainability Plan, Sainsbury's is committed to making sure that its own packaging has been reduced by half compared to 2005 and this latest initiative will help deliver this. New packaging designs on Sainsbury's own brand products has generated an 11% reduction in the last two years.

New on-pack information will help shoppers make more sustainable purchasing decisions, by reassuring customers that it is the same number of sheets and the same quality in each roll, but that it will now use less packaging, take lorries off the road and save the consumer space at home.

Fiona Miall, toilet roll buyer for Sainsbury's, said: "We are always looking for new ways to make small changes to our business that can help our customers make more sustainable choices. Our scale means that by making what seems like a relatively small packaging development, we're able to make significant carbon savings.

"Our customers will still get the same number of sheets and the same great quality, but by shrinking the tube we are able to reduce the overall package size, meaning fewer lorries are needed on the road to deliver the products to our stores, and our shoppers save valuable storage space. It's innovations like this that will help us to deliver our 20 by 20 Sustainability Plan and will make a positive difference throughout our supply chain."

The new smaller rolls are set to arrive in Sainsbury's distribution depots from 7 May and will hit stores across the country shortly afterwards.