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Tesco has launched a new sustainability initiative whereby shoppers at all of Tesco’s large stores will be able to bring back any soft plastic packaging for recycling.
The supermarket expects to collect more than 1000 tonnes a year and will “recycle as much of this material as possible” back into products and packaging sold in Tesco stores.
The initiative aims to kickstart the supermarket moving to reusable and recyclable packaging alternatives. Is the latest development of the supermarkets “ 4Rs strategy”, remove, reduce, reuse, recycle.
It comes after a 171-store trial earlier this year in Wales and the South West, where close to a tonne of soft plastic was collected a day and “85% of customers said it helped them to recycle more than they would have done otherwise”.
The collection points will allow customers to return all their previously unrecycled soft plastic, such as the clear film used to wrap meat and fish, crisp packets, fruit and veg bags and sweet wrappers.
Sarah Bradbury, Tesco director of quality, said: “We’re tackling the impact of plastics by removing and reducing it as much as possible, helping customers move to reusable alternatives, and ensuring they can recycle everything that’s left.
“I’m delighted that we’re rolling out collection points to the whole of the country so even more customers can help us stop plastic from going to waste.”
Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP, added: “By offering shoppers a simple and consistent collections system Tesco is helping to ensure that much more of this problem plastic is captured and goes on to be recycled.”
