The Guardian goes plastic free, opts for potato starch wrapping

Jumping onboard the plastic-free ship, UK national newspaper The Guardian has done away with its polythene packaging and opted for a compostable wrapping made from potato starch. The packaging also came with instruction on how to get rid of it: they should not recycle the wrapping, but should instead dispose of it in either a home compost heap or a food or garden waste bin.

From tomorrow, for the first time, the Guardian's Saturday magazines will be wrapped in a compostable wrapping derived from potato starch, replacing the current plastic wrapping. Starting with London, Essex, Norfolk, Kent, Herts & Suffolk, rolling out to the rest of the UK soon pic.twitter.com/Qy7m4Y6d2B

- Katharine Viner (@KathViner) January 11, 2019

The newspaper has claimed that it is the first national newspaper in the UK to switch to biodegradable wrapping. According to the BBC, some other publications have already moved to potato starch packaging, including the National Trust members' magazine and the New Internationalist.

While readers in London, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk have already received the new packaging from the weekend commencing 12 January 2019, the change will be gradually implemented across the rest of the country over the next few months.

To read more on this, go to Dezeen.