Retailer Plastic Recycling Programs

Sainsbury's has announced a new in-store recycling system in the UK that is focused on offering consumers with a way to recycle packaging materials that are harder to recycle from home. The initiative will see polypropylene (PP) film from salad bags, biscuits, frozen food bags, cake wrappers and more being accepted by the grocer, which are not currently accepted by many municipal recycling programs in the UK. The program will be trialled in 63 stores in the North East with a wider rollout expected to take place by the end of the year.

Director of Product and Innovation at Sainsbury's Claire Hughes spoke further on the new in-store recycling system saying, "Sainsbury’s is dedicated to trialling and testing new initiatives as part of our ongoing commitment to make it easier for customers to recycle. We hope that by trialling flexible film recycling points in our stores and accepting more of the packaging that our customers may be unable to recycle at home, we are helping our customers reduce plastic waste. We’ll listen to feedback from our colleagues and customers before we roll out the flexible plastic packaging recycling scheme wider. As we work to reduce, reuse, replace and recycle plastic packaging, we’ll continue to find collaborations, working with our suppliers, academics and organizations such as WRAP to explore innovative ways to reduce and recycle more of our packaging."