Tesco and Sainsbury’s under fire for ‘misleading’ customers on recycling scheme
Tesco and Sainsbury’s have come under fire over allegations of misleading shoppers about their front-of-store recycling schemes, after an investigation found plastic soft waste was sent overseas and burned.
The Everyday Plastic campaign group and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA UK) tracked 40 bundles of soft plastic waste from the UK’s two largest supermarkets’ take-back schemes across the country.
Everyday Plastic campaigner graphic depicting the final locations of the bundles.
The scheme features front-of-store collection points installed by the two grocers, with an aim to improve its plastic waste footprint.
The initiative allows customers to drop off soft plastic packaging to be recycled as it cannot currently be collected via traditional kerbside collections.
However, the campaigners said volunteers placed Apple tracking devices in 40 bundles of ‘to-be-recycled’ plastic packaging, which were dropped off at both Sainsbury’s and Tesco collection points in July 2023.
The devices were tracked until February 2024 and found to have collectively travelled over 25,000km across the UK and overseas. However, out of the trackers known to have reached a final destination, seven were turned into fuel pellets, five burned for energy and four were downcycled into lower-value plastic products abroad, specifically Turkey.
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The campaigners say just one was downcycled in the UK, whereas 70% of the tracked bundles were burned for energy.
The revelation comes as Sainsbury’s and Tesco claim they are close to hitting their voluntary packaging recyclability targets.
Everyday Plastic research director Alison Colclough said: “The take-back schemes are being presented as a solution, which is diverting attention from the main issue that can’t be overlooked: far too much unnecessary plastic packaging is being produced.”
A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said: “We’re always seeking ways to positively manage the end of life of our packaging. We collect a small volume of flexible plastic overall in-store. The majority is in good condition and so is recycled.
“However, when materials are soiled or damaged, then they may need to be converted for energy, which is managed by our supplier. Feedback is important to us and we’d welcome any suggestions on how we can improve our efforts in this area.”
Tesco responded that any materials sent to Turkey was a supplier error. A spokesperson added: “We have a clear plan to remove packaging wherever possible and reducing, reusing and recycling it where we can’t.
“Where it is not possible to recycle the collected plastic, we put it to alternative uses to avoid these materials going to landfill, for example using it for energy recovery. We know there is a lot more progress to be made, and the infrastructure to recycle soft plastics at scale in the UK and the EU still has a way to go.”
2 Comments. Leave new
Not surprised – I thought it was inevitable that some would have to go to ‘waste to heat’ plants – that’s good isn’t it?
No surprises there then. Had logically concluded that this was in fact the reality and that we were being hoodwinked into believing the systems and technology was in place to do anything other than burn this mixed and often contaminated waste packaging. Well done for calling this out. Until root cause of excessive or inappropriate plastic packaging is addressed we will never solve the problem