Pringles makes big change to iconic tubes at 3,800 stores and shoppers will be divided

PRINGLES has made a big change to its iconic tubes at 3,800 stores across the country.

The supermarket staple has had a makeover and shoppers are bound to be divided.

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The crisps now come in 90% paper packaging, and the new tubes are only available at Tesco and One Stop shops.

Each chain has 2,800 and 1,000 stores nationwide, respectively.

The paper tubes will eventually fully replace the iconic Pringles can originally launched in the 1960s, which have a steel base.

It means snackers can now pop the empty cans in their household recycling for the first time.

The new packaging will land exclusively in Tesco stores and online from this week, before being rolled out to other supermarkets towards the end of 2024.

It comes after Kellanova, Pringles' owner, launched a trial of the new packaging back in 2020.

The brand previously said it wants 100% of its packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by the end of 2025.

Chris Silcock, UK managing director, said: "We know people want to reduce their impact to the planet and it’s our responsibility to improve the recyclability of our packaging.

"We’ve worked hard to develop and test a recyclable Pringles paper tube and we made significant investment in new technology to enable our factories to produce it."

He continued that the new cans are not just widely recyclable but keep the crisps fresh and protect them from breaking to reduce food waste.

The news comes after another popular crisps brand changed up their packaging last year.

From October 26, Walkers started rolling out Walkers Baked multipacks with the outer packaging entirely made out of paper.

Other snacks which have had a makeover recently include Mars bars.

In May last year, the chocolate bar ditched plastic packaging and went back to using paper like it did up until the mid-1970s as part of a trial also at Tesco.

If it is a success, the new wrappers will be rolled out to all retailers and the brand’s other favourites such as Bounty, Galaxy, Maltesers, Milky Way and Snickers.

Previously, chocolate fans slammed Quality Street's new eco-friendly wrappers - saying the recyclable packing makes them look "like knock-offs".

Supermarkets are also among those making changes to their own-brand products too.

Most recently, Sainsbury's announced it is switching a further three of its own-brand mushroom punnets from plastic to cardboard by the end of the month.

The retailer switched the packaging on all of its own-brand toilet and kitchen rolls from plastic to paper in September.

Back in February last year, Sainsbury's revealed that it would be vacuum-packing all of its beef mince products.

The change means the supermarket is using a minimum of 55% less plastic, making it more eco-friendly as a result.

But, shoppers weren't impressed and slammed the change complaining that now the meat sticks together in a lump.

In 2020, Sainsbury's removed plastic trays from its tomatoes and the year before on asparagus.

Posh shop M&S rolled out new paper-based packaging on its rice, grains and pulses range in April.

M&S also introduced its "bring your own bag" initiative.

In August 2023, Tesco became the latest grocery store to make a change to its mince meat.

Instead of the traditional tray and top wrap packet, Tesco shoppers will see the meat stored on shelves in new pillow packs.

The new packaging is being introduced as part of a trial in just nine stores and across two lines of minced meat.

Elsewhere, Morrisons replaced all its plastic bags with 30p paper ones in 2021.

Tesco doubled the price of its plastic bags to 20p in 2020 to deter customers away from using them.

Meanwhile, shoppers are rushing to buy new limited edition flavour Walkers crisps spotted in supermarkets.

Plus, a brand has discontinued "to die for" crisp flavour as shoppers plead "but they’re unreal".