Southern Co-op has rolled out soft plastic recycling bins across more of its stores in a bid to encourage its shoppers to safely recycle materials.
As a result of successful trials and consumer demand, the bins are now accessible in 167 of the independent co-operative‘s stores.
The expansion to more locations will now see more of its customers able to recycle soft plastics such as cling film, biscuit wrappers and carrier bags in-stores.
“We started to trial these towards the end of last year and they have been really well received by both customers and colleagues,” Southern Co-op chief operating officer for retail, Simon Eastwood said.
“We would ask recyclers to double check if their plastics can be recycled before putting it in the bin. One way to do this is the scrunch test. It also needs to have had a quick clean but it doesn’t need to have been bought in store to be recycled with us.”
Adding to its current climate action activity, Southern Co-op has set a target for its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions to be cut from its business by 2030.
This comes as all of its own-brand food packaging is also able to be recycled through kerbside collections or soft plastic recycling bins in stores, which is turned into post-consumer plastic granules and made into secondary products including bin liners and buckets.
Southern Co-op director of sustainability and communications, Gemma Lacey added: “We all need to do our bit to ensure our future is waste free. We are really pleased with how the trials of soft plastic recycling has gone so far and are now keen to enable more people to make use of it.
“We know the appetite for change is there within our communities and together we can all play our part in making a positive difference to our environment and our communities.”
This news follows on from Aldi’s announcement last month that it will be rolling out recycling bins for soft plastics across nearly all of its UK stores as it looks to reduce plastic pollution and help its customers to recycle more waste per year.
