The Co-op could be poised to up its environmental targets at its annual general meeting (AGM) next week.

The mutual has a target of making 80% of its own-brand packaging recyclable by 2020.

But a motion to be put to the AGM on 20 May will propose a longer-term goal of 100%.

This, it said, would see it become the only retailer to set such a target.

The latest move towards this goal has seen the convenience store operator ditch the use of polystyrene pizza discs across its own-brand products.

It has replaced the discs with cardboard which can be recycled.

The Co-op says the move will prevent 200 tonnes of polystyrene going to landfill each year and will create almost 450 tonnes of cardboard for recycling.

The new Stateside-manufactured boards have a lower carbon impact and are the lightest on the market, at 20g, it says.

Iain Ferguson, environment manager at the Co-op, said pizza discs had been high on the group’s priorities for “some time” and it had been working hard to find the right replacement.

“This change is a major step in our journey to make all of our packaging easy to recycle, and we will be making further announcements on packaging in the months ahead.”

These will include a switch from black plastic to card packaging for tomatoes later this year.

Other initiatives already introduced include changing from black plastic to widely recycled blue plastic for mushrooms and using a single plastic material for cooked meat trays.