Available to watch on-demand: edies Climate Finance Week online events, Tesco removes plastic wrapping from soft drinks multipacks, Tesco ends trials of refillable products through TerraCycles Loop platform. It is still keeping its cards close to its chest regarding the compliance and recycling partners involved in the programme. The fund only pays for the PRNs when the final recycled product has been produced (rather than when the plastics are collected) and pays more for higher quality products. A weekly roundup of the latest news and analysis, sent every Friday. The ultimate goal of the fund is to create a fully circular recycling model, in which all plastic wrapping put on the market is collected and recycled into more flexible plastic, eliminating waste. Following a successful trial in the North East of England, Sainsburys has rolled out an innovative new recycling system to a total of 520 supermarkets allowing customers to recycle all flexible plastic packaging which is not commonly accepted for kerbside collection by local authorities. The downside is now I need a new, separate container and then I've got to retrain the family 2022- Iliffe Media Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. These notes guarantee that an equivalent amount of packaging has been recycled. Claire Hughes, Director of Product and Innovation at Sainsburys, said:Were really excited to announce the mass rollout of the Flexible Plastics Recycling scheme in over 520 of our stores, helping our customers to recycle more of their plastic packaging, instead of it ending up as waste. Making recycling easier for our customers is a key part of our strategy to minimise the impact of single-use plastics on the environment, alongside our own ambitious target of reducing the use of plastics in our own operations by 50% by 2025.. Speaking in front of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee, Jacob Hayler, executive director of the Environmental Services Association (ESA) said firms do not have to pre-notify the EA about where they are exporting waste making it very challenging for them to be able to regulate that appropriately. This includes packaging such as crisp packets, food pouches, salad bags and biscuit and cake wrappers which 83% of UK local authorities currently dont accept for recycling. There was no incentive for recyclers to develop the infrastructure to handle them and no point in collecting them for recycling, which is why they ended up in landfill or in the environment. Login or register for unlimited FREE access. Although flexible plastic represents a fifth of all UK citizen plastic packaging, only 6% is collected for recycling currently. Since China banned imports of plastic waste in 2017, most of our plastic recycling ends up in Turkey (over 200,000 tonnes of the stuff last year and this year's figures look set to be even higher). It took me ages to find any details but heres a link which opens a pdf with all the stores offering plastic collection The introduction of the new, market-leading recycling system by Sainsburys is the latest move in the retailers initiative to reduce, reuse, replace and recycle plastic in its own operations while continuing to make it easier for customers to recycle. Currently, just 17% of UK local authorities collect the problem material for recycling. The initiative is being championed by resources charity WRAP. The expanded initiative follows a successful trial system rolled out in 63 branches in the North East in February (see letsrecycle.com story). Our monthly Summary Report covers legislation and consultation deadlines in key sectors, Visit our Big Issue page to get the latest on the Environment Bill, aimed at maintaining environmental standards post-Brexit. Tesco said there was no evidence that any of its branded plastic discovered at Turkish landfills came from its soft plastic collection points. It is also impossible to complain to their head office, no email address or phone number! Going through the pile was a great prompt for me to think about my own plastics reduction strategy. Sainsburys, as the first retailer to make a commitment to halve its use of plastic packaging by 2025, has also led the way with the removal of single use plastic bags from loose produce, 70% reduction of plastic in its Taste the Difference and SO Organic lamb and steak packaging and removed over 297 tonnes of waste plastic by working with Prevented Ocean Plastic to repurpose plastic collected from the coast into packaging for its strawberry and fresh fish ranges. The major supermarkets and the manufacturers (Purina for example) and Terracycle boast of their green credentials and claim that they operate recycling schemes for pet food pouches. One of these items made it to an industrial zone nearAdana in Southeast Turkey just miles from where activists and journalists in Adanahave previously found Tesco-branded wrappers at illegal dump sites. Keeping these cookies enabled helps us to fund and improve our website which is free to visit and use. This would create more, rather than less, demand for new plastic. Does a major recycling drive by big retailers stand up to scrutiny? An exciting opportunity has become available to work full time on a 26-month Knowledge Transfer Partnership. The list of flexible plastic film accepted in Sainsburys stores as part of the packaging recycling scheme is listed below. New research suggests that 95% of people are willing to recycle their flexible plastics, but, at the moment, Sainsbury's and the Co-Op are the only retailers to have rolled collection points out nationally. Please continue if you are happy with this or view our Cookie policy to find out more. I left the bags on the flour next to it and 10 min later they had vanished, probably dumped in the general waste bin. The packaging recycling scheme enables consumers to deposit items such as used crisp packets, food pouches, salad bags and biscuit and cake wrappers in bins based within Sainsburys stores. Conor McGlone investigates, Get more great articles like this straight to your inbox. Reducing food waste in the hospitality sector. Is the waste going to be recycled or is it going to end up polluting a river or a beach somewhere? UK grocer Sainsburys has announced 520 of its stores across the UK will now offer a flexible plastic packaging recycling scheme. Sainsburys Product and Innovation director Claire Hughes said: Were really excited to announce the mass rollout of the Flexible Plastics Recycling scheme in more than 520 of our stores, helping our customers to recycle more of their plastic packaging instead of having it end up as waste. In the meantime, it said its 2022 accreditation had been approved by the EA "without any delays or issue". The news follows the announcement in May that Sainsburys joined the Flexible Plastic Fund an initiative which aims to ensure flexible plastics are properly recycled. Supermarket chain Sainsburys has rolled out its flexible plastic recycling scheme to 520 stores nationwide. So, the FPF only really adds environmental value if it's in the context of an overall plastics reduction strategy. But we live in the real world and I know I am not alone. We use cookies to give you the best experience and to learn about your use of our site for advertising and analytics purposes. The UK does not currently have the capacity to recycle this type of plastic, so customers are encouraged to take their flexible plastic waste back to supermarkets. This website uses cookies to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. It follows a call from resources charity WRAP last month, urging more supermarkets to collect all types of plastic bags and wrapping for sorting and recycling. High-Quality Dosing and Packaging Solutions for the Dairy Industry, Indias Largest Multinational Flexible Packaging Materials and Solution Company, Thank you for subscribing to Packaging Gateway, The leading site for news and procurement in the packaging industry, Receive our newsletter - data, insights and analysis delivered to you. Cookie information is temporarily stored in your browser and helps our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. The retailer has also been announced as the Principal Supermarket Partner for the United Nations international climate change conference, COP26, due to take place in November. Since these pouches appear to be the majority packaging, this is irresponsible. Waitrose is running a trial across 37 stores. Other supermarkets, including Tesco, Aldi and Coop, are trialing similar schemes. E&T revealed in February that the firm in question, Eurokey, had its exportaccreditation suspendedlast year after mislabelling the type of plastic it exported to Turkey. Tesco said the soft plastic collected in its stores was currently being recycled into bin liners at a recycling facility in Derbyshire but Nina Schrank, senior plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said supermarkets were still producing far too much plastic. They have taken some baby steps to reduce packaging on some product lines, but it's small beer so far. However, Eurokey has refused to provide ENDS with any detail on where the material goes, or the tonneages involved, prompting the Environment Agency (EA) to urge businesses to ensure they carry out sufficient duty of care checks. Registered office: 55 Station Road, Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 1QL. The supermarket said the front of store recycling points will make it easier than ever for customers to make more sustainable choices by offering a trustworthy recycling system where they can correctly dispose of flexible plastic packaging. Sainsbury's is part of the Flexible Plastics Fund (FPF) which brings together global brands (including Unilever, Mars, PepsiCo and Mondelez, the owner of Cadbury), retailers and recyclers, with the aim of stimulating high-quality recycling of flexible plastics in the UK. I brought my flexible packaging waste to Sainsburys in Charlton last week, and was told they had not renewed their contract, so couldnt take it. Sainsburys made a big announcement but their staff dont know about it, the collection provision is very poor and there is no public information in store. Claire Hughes, director of product & innovation at Sainsburys, commented:Making recycling easier for our customers is a key part of our strategy to minimise the impact of single-use plastics on the environment, alongside our own ambitious target of reducing the use of plastics in our own operations by 50% by 2025.. This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. However, it said it took any allegations that suggest the waste it sends for recycling is going to landfill very seriously and that it was therefore undertaking its own audit of the supplier. Making recycling easier for our customers is a key part of our strategy to minimise the impact of single-use plastics on the environment, alongside our own ambitious target of halving the use of plastics in our own operations by 2025.. Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website. Instead, a Sainsburys spokesperson said: We are a responsible retailer and have robust compliance processes in place and work closely with our suppliers on due diligence.. Action inspires action. Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences! You get the picture. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. Tonight I took 4 large bags of carefully collected flexible packaging waste to Sainsburys in Lee Green. Hard-to-recycle flexible plastic packaging such as film is not currently collected by most councils in the UK, with just 6% of it recycled, despite it comprising a fifth of all plastic packaging put on the market. The top stories of the day delivered to you every weekday. Does the CMAs Veolia/Suez stance conflict with the pace of change? Separate research from the Flexible Packaging Consortiumrevealed that some 215 billion pieces of flexible plastic packaging are placed on the UK market every year and that almost all of this material is sent to landfill or incineration. The system is part of Sainsburys initiative to reduce, reuse, replace and recycle plastic across its operations. No other reproduction or distribution is permitted without prior written consent. If you open up my black bin, you'll discover my secret eco-shame: plastic food packaging. This site uses cookies. Eurokey is in the process of appealing an administrative proceeding from the local Environmental Protection Agency regarding the order to remove waste from sites not intended for their storage. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. The packaging industry's most comprehensive news and information delivered every month. Our government is under pressure to ban the export of all plastic waste, but at the moment we lack the recycling infrastructure to handle it in the UK. Sign up to the E&T News e-mail to get great stories like this delivered to your inbox every day. But pinning them down produces nothing of any relevance or blank looks. For the initial trial, Sainsburys partnered with Leicestershire-based Eurokey Recycling, which will mechanically recycle all polyethylene (PE) and PP film from Sainsburys front of store collections from customers and back of store operations. They always say NO until I persuade them otherwise and they have to ring for other staff. Eventually they found the collection bin,which was far too small to take my bags. After sorting the material, Eurokey says it either sells the graded material directly to processors for use in recycled products or it works with partners across Europe for further processing into plastic pellets which can be sold for use in a range of products. It cited a report from waste prevention charity Wrap, which estimated flexible film contributed towards 290,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste in 2019. These soft plastic recycling points are being introduced as a way to convince shoppers that supermarkets are taking action on the plastics crisis that they continue to fuel, she said. Following E&Ts investigation, Bloomberg placed digital trackers inside three used plastic items and deposited them in Tesco storefront collection bins. It also uses Hotjar to collect anonymous information about how you navigate and interact with the site. Installations Officer - Control of Major Accidents Hazards (COMAH) Regulation. Roar B2B, First Floor, Home / News / Circular Economy / Sainsburys rolls out largest flexible plastic packaging recycling system, Circular Economy, Environment and Energy, Resource Management, Sustainability. Change your cookie settings. Almost 300 tonnes of plastic waste has been removed by working with Prevented Ocean Plastic to repurpose ocean plastics waste into packaging. The UK produces over 300,000 tonnes of this waste a year, but only recycles 6% of it. Sainsburys announced last week that following a trial in the north east of England, it was rolling out its flexible packaging trial to a total of 520 supermarkets across the UK. Strictly Necessary Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings and you can move around the website and use its features. The retailer also signed on to thehighest tier of sponsorship for COP26, ahead of the event in Glasgow this November. The Sainsburys store at Forestside in Belfast is listed as having this facility but I couldnt find it, nor did the member of staff I asked about it know anything about it, so I ended up taking my bag of plastic to a nearby Tesco store. Were really excited to announce the mass rollout of the Flexible Plastics Recycling scheme in over 520 of our stores, helping our customers to recycle more of their plastic packaging, instead of it ending up as waste. The move comes after the retailer completed a successful trial, which started in the north-east of England in February. Historically, the price of PRNs for flexible plastics was low because they were hard to recycle and there wasn't much of a market for them. The fund aims to ensure flexible plastics are properly recycled by ensuring that it has a stable value (see letsrecycle.com story). Eurokey then collects this waste from Sainsburys and Tesco and ships it to a plant in Poland, where it is sorted before being sent for reprocessing elsewhere. Meanwhile, the UKs largest supermarket chain, Tesco, has announced it is carrying out an audit of the waste exporter employed by both supermarkets to recycle this plastic waste - following an E&T investigation. Sainsburys wider plastics strategy is aligned with WRAPs UK Plastics Pact. Most local authorities do no currently accept this material in curbside collections. This article was updated on 27/4/22 to include a comment from Eurokey. In its suspension notice, the Environment Agency (EA) said for at least four months last year Eurokey had exported plastic waste to Turkish sites that were not authorised to process the material. It aims to recycle at least 80% of the plastics collected in the UK (with the rest sent to approved processors in Europe), rising to 100% by 2023. Sainsbury's gets this: it was the first supermarket to commit to cutting plastic packaging from branded and own-brand goods by 50% by 2025. Both Sainsburys and Tesco have offered to support the government to develop recycling infrastructure in the UK, as scrutiny over plastic exports intensifies. None of my local stores have any publicity about this new scheme and all that has been done is for small signs to be added to their very small bins that normally take plastic bags for recycling which are always full! Crucially, the fund is designed to stimulate recycling right here in the UK. I'll be taking my own string veg bags and a cotton bread bag along with me when I do my shopping (I just picked a bread bag up for 3.99 from newlivingstore.co.uk). Flexible plastic comprises of a fifth of all UK citizen plastic packaging, but only 6% is currently collected for recycling. So I was excited to see that Sainsbury's has launched a new recycling scheme for flexible plastic packaging in 520 of its stores (including here in Bishop's Stortford). When approached by ENDS, Sainsburys declined to provide details of the tonneages involved and where the material - which is often highly contaminated - was likely to end up. Contact the Circular team, Advertising with Circular can help you reach your audience. This is where the new scheme steps in. But Turkey can't cope. Please would you investigate this farce! Currently, around 83% of UK local authorities currently dont accept these materials for recycling. The supermarket is striving to halve its plastic use by 2025. Jacob Hayler - EFRA Committee session on plastic waste.mp4, Veolia thanks St Albans' residents - March 2022, March 2022 Interview with David Palmer-Jones who is leaving Suez, Interview with Carole Taylor, past Chair of LARAC, How the Commonwealth Games can inspire sustainable large-scale events. The front of store recycling points will allow customers to dispose of soft packaging such as crisp packets, food pouches, salad bags and biscuit and cake wrappers for recycling. Eurokey says it aims to enable closed looped systems where waste produce can be recycled and placed back in the market where it originated. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Sainsburys has today (24 June) confirmed that the system will roll out to 520 stores nationwide. As Friends of the Earth plastics campaigner Camilla Zerr points out, recycling is welcome but: "[It] shouldn't take priority over the urgent need to reduce the amount of plastic waste produced in the first place. Please login or Register to leave a comment. Green Chancellors and nature spending tests: What would net-zero and climate policy look like under Labour? No recycling bins are at Customer Service desk as this store. While there are requirements that the material should then be recycled to an equivalent standard to the UK, it is very difficult to check, he added. Tagged Flexible Plastic Recycling, packaging, plastic, Sainsburys, Climate Change / Legislation / Local Authority, Circular is the sustainability media brand brought to you by CIWM, CIWM empowers professionalism across the resources sector, Got a story for us? The chain added that this is the latest move in its aim to reduce, reuse, replace and recycle plastic in its own operations while continuing to make it easier for customers to recycle. An initiative to increase the amount of plastic packaging being recycled is generating momentum across the UK, but complaints are surfacing about the fate of the material once it arrives in Poland and questions over duty of care have been raised. A complete joke! Here's the technical bit: companies are legally required to recycle a percentage of their packaging, in line with annual targets. According to the retailer, the expanded initiative has the potential to significantly decrease the amount of plastic packaging going to landfill. Sainsburys has also removed single-use plastic bags from loose products and has delivered a 70% reduction in plastics from its Taste the Difference and SO Organic lamb and steak packaging. We need a fundamental shake up, the amount of plastic on their shelves drastically reduced and innovative reuse models introduced that allow packaging to stay out of the environment, and in a loop where it is used, washed and refilled again, said Schrank. 2022 The Institution of Engineering and Technology. The Government has to show greater urgency too, by setting targets to reduce the amount of unnecessary plastic produced in the UK each year.". The expanded initiative has the potential to significantly decrease the amount of plastic packaging going to landfill, with a report from WRAP estimating that flexible film contributed towards 290,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste in 2019. He said there was also a lack of transparency about where some of the plastic waste was ending up. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. We are using cookies to give you the best browsing experience on our website. The scheme enabled customers in the North East of England to recycle polypropylene (PP) film, which is found on many popular supermarket items but is not recycled at kerbside by most local authorities in England. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings. Sainsburys told Green Retail World at the time of the trial that the plastic is sorted and recycled into pellets for use in injection moulded applications for manufacturing items such as dustpans, buckets and flower pots. According to a Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) report from last December, 83% of UK local authorities do not accept these types of packaging for recycling.
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