Sainsbury’s is closing all of its remaining recycling centres at around 250 UK stores.
According to The Times, the supermarket has been quietly axing the recycling points despite pleas by locals and politicians to keep the services.
Many of the facilities are in the chain’s car parks, making it easy for people to recycle waste while doing their shopping.
Recycling is one of the supermarket’s six core “pillars” for tackling climate change for Sainsbury’s – a page on their website reads: “We’re making it easier for customers and colleagues to recycle.”
It is unclear exactly how many of the recycling centres have been closed so far, but the supermarket still says online that it has 273 recycling spaces across the UK.
The controversial move comes after the government postponed a series of measures to tackle waste. However, the government’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is set to be delayed by at least another year from 2024 to 2025.
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Sainsbury’s told The Times: “We regularly review our services to ensure we’re helping customers in ways that benefit them the most.
“To avoid duplicating the recycling services offered by local councils, we’re instead focusing on materials which are traditionally harder for customers to recycle at home, such as flexible plastics, which we collect in all our supermarkets.”
Everyday Plastic founder, Daniel Webb said: “This move not only places more reliance on kerbside recycling but also reduces the opportunity for those who may not have kerbside recycling services, such as residents in flats.”
In August, the government was faced with backlash for scrapping new food waste legislation that could have reduced food prices and helped tackle the climate crisis.
2 Comments. Leave new
So much for their efforts to help with and promote recycling!
The stark truth is that customers were fly-tipping all sorts of garbage in these areas – dumping all sorts of things nearby and not in the designated bins, which incurred costs to the chain to clean up!
Was bound to happen; the few spoiled it for the many.