Waitrose has launched soft plastic recycling at 295 of its stores in a bid to offer customers more ways to recycle.
The move comes following a successful trial which also saw the upmarket retailer finding a UK-based waste management solution.
Waitrose sustainability and ethics specialist, Caroline Pinnell said that recycling is a “key priority” for many of its customers.
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Film and flexible packaging accounts for around 25% of all consumer packaging and according to climate action NGO Wrap, only 8% is recycled due to a lack of kerbside collections and limitations in recycling infrastructure.
Clean and dry items including carrier bags, bread bags, frozen food bags, delivery bags, cereal liners, toilet roll wrapping, salad, pasta and rice bags, cheese, fish and meat wrapping, crisps, biscuit and chocolate wrapping, baby and pet food pouches, and bubble wrap and cling film can now be recycled in stores.
The plastic will be sent to a reprocessor in Glasgow where it will be washed, separated and flaked or pelletised so it can be made into new products or materials such as secondary packaging, shrink wrap, delivery or carrier bags, refuse sacks and guttering, buckets or plastic furniture.
Pinnell added: “Across both Waitrose and John Lewis, we are continuing to strip away single-use packaging and provide our customers with convenient reuse, refill and recycling solutions.
“We are on track to meet our 2023 Waitrose packaging target, that all of our own-brand packaging will be reusable or made from widely recyclable or home-compostable material by the end of 2023, two years ahead of the industry-wide WRAP UK Plastic Pact.”
This follows on from initiatives at other UK supermarkets including at Aldi, which rolled out recycling bins for soft plastics across nearly all of its UK stores last year and at Southern Co-op with bins accessible in 167 stores.
