Sara-Jayne Makwala King | In 2018, Woolworths pledged to phase out unnecessary single-use plastics and instead use reusable or recyclable packaging by 2022.

- In 2018, Woolworths announced its plan to phase out unnecessary single-use plastics and commit to packaging being either reusable or recyclable by 2022.

- Part of the plan involved the phasing out of plastic shopping bags in favour of black reuseable fabric bags.

In line with its 2018 commitment to stop using non-recyclable plastic packaging - including plastic shopping bags - by 2022, Woolworths has revealed its latest efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

The retailer's hugely popular rotisserie chicken will now be served in a recyclable polypropylene bag.

"[It] means that on an annual basis over 11.5 million bags are now not doomed to go to landfill and can rather be recycled," said the retailer in a statement.

As part of our vision to have ZERO packaging waste to landfill, we are designing our packaging for circularity. This means that we are designing our packaging to keep it out of landfill and that it can rather be reused in a continuous process within the packaging supply chain.

Additionally, with the recent opening of a new PET Wash Plant in Cape Town, an additional 1,000 of the retailer’s food packaging items can now be recycled in South Africa.

RELATED: Woolworths pilots in-store reusable shopping bag collection

In November 2010, Woolworths was the first retailer to introduce recycled content into its packaging and three years ago it announced that it would be phasing out plastic bags from its stores in a bid to go plastic-free.

While recycling alone cannot solve the world’s pollution problems, it has significant potential to impact on cleaning up our waste systems, creating jobs and reducing the use of virgin plastics.

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This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Same chicken, new (recyclable) bag - Woolies makes good on 2018 'green' promise