Tesco to stop selling plastic-containing baby wipes from March 14

Tesco is set to stop selling baby wipes containing plastic as it causes environmental damage, stated reports on Sunday (27).

As per a report by The Guardian, from March 14, Tesco will not be selling branded baby wipes containing plastic, about two years after it ceased using plastic in its own-brand products.

As per the supermarket, it had been working to reformulate to remove plastic in some of the other own-label and branded wipes it sells, including cleaning wipes and moist toilet tissue. It also said its only kind of wipe that still contained plastic – designed to be used for pets – would also be plastic-free by the end of the year.

The news comes almost two years after the supermarket reportedly began to remove plastic from its own-brand wet wipes by switching to biodegradable viscose, which it says breaks down far more quickly.

Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s group quality director, said: “We have worked hard to remove plastic from our wipes as we know how long they take to break down.”

Tesco sells about 75 million packs of baby wipes every year, amounting to 4.8 billion individual wipes, said the report.

Last November, MPs had called on the retailers to do more to remove plastics from their products and packaging after they heard how wet wipes are forming islands, causing rivers to change shape as the products pile up on their banks, while marine animals are dying after ingesting microplastics.