British supermarket Tesco is laser-tattooing avocados to cut plastic pollution. Will it make any difference?

The trial applies only to avocados, which have risen in popularity in the U.K. over the last decade, with avocado on toast a particularly delicacy for millennials. The company, ranked 34 in the latest Fortune 500 Europe list, sells close to 70 million of the oily fruits a year, up 15% in the last 12 months.

The company told the Daily Mail that if it extended the trial, currently limited to around 270 stores in south-east England, nationwide then it could prevent a million plastic stickers being used. In the same trial, conducted with a sole supplier, Westfalia Fruit, it is also replacing the plastic tray for avocado multipacks with a cardboard alternative.

Why does this matter?

Sad though it is to admit, no one’s going to save the world with lasers alone. The far bigger problem will surely be from plastic packaging waste and the emissions associated with transporting the fruits to stores, whether from domestic producers or from further afield.

It’s also the case that the idea only really applies to certain products—avocados have dark, thick skin that allows a light laser etching to be done both safely and clearly. The same doesn’t apply to, say, a peach.

But that doesn’t mean laser-tattooing fruit is only a publicity stunt.

Ambitious sustainability goals are unlikely to be achieved by one or two grand, sweeping measures.

Instead, large numbers of smaller initiatives give ways for businesses like Tesco—which like many others has a net zero emissions target for 2050—to move incrementally but assuredly forwards.

The group for example has reduced its scope 1 and 2 emissions—that is, not including end use of its products—by 61% since 2015, which will likely have been the result of lots of small changes.

What’s next?

Whether there is a plastic-label-free future for avocado-munching Brits depends on how the trial goes. 

The bigger changes to watch out for concern alternatives to plastic packaging, from refill stations through to packaging derived from things like kelp or cassava. 

The technology hasn’t quite reached the level of competing with fossil-fuel derived plastic packaging yet, but technological progress is happening all the time. 

Regulation can move the dial too, as the U.K.’s successful ban on free plastic shopping bags showed (Aldi is trying something similar in its U.S. stores). 

As ever, it’s wise to be somewhat sceptical of what supermarkets, consumer-packaged-goods companies and others say about their efforts. But when you start noticing less plastic in your recycling or trash, and more things like laser-etched fruit, you’ll know they’re starting to pay off.