Tesco announces new packaging initiative to save carbon Retail giant Tesco has revealed new initiatives to help cut the carbon impact of products in its stores in conjunction with the launch of Courtauld Commitment 2 (see MRW story).The supermarket will use plastic bottles for its own-brand spirits instead of using glass. By moving its own-brand brandy into plastic bottles it has made an 86% reduction in packaging. Tesco has also launched, what it claims to be, the lightest ever wine bottle following the completion of a collaborative project with WRAP and suppliers. The new bottles are 300g, 30% lighter than the supermarket’s previous lightest own-label bottles and save 560 tonnes of glass annually. more...
Retailer Marks and Spencer has announced that it intends help boost the number of clothes its customers recycle as part of its drive to become the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015. Currently M&S customers recycle around two million garments every year through the retailer’s partnership with Oxfam, although it wants to increase this number to 20 million to help reduce the tonnage of clothing being sent to landfill.
A new Courtauld Commitment is set to be launched by the Waste & Resources Action Programme this week that will introduce new carbon targets for signed-up retailers, food manufacturers and packaging manufacturers.
The Waste & Resources Action Programme is undertaking new research to calculate the amount of waste in the UK retail supply chain for pre-prepared food for the first time and identify how it can be reduced for businesses to achieve cost and environmental savings.Covering four representative products – sandwiches, pizza, quiche and ready meals – the research will develop detailed ‘resource maps’ to highlight the amount of food and packaging waste generated for each product type at key stages in the chilled and frozen supply chains
M&S announces local authority recycling partnerships High-street retailer M&S has announced four recycling partnerships with UK local authorities to help councils collect an additional 60,000 tonnes of recyclable material per year by 2015. The announcement comes as part of the M&S Plan A eco-initiative and is set to significantly increase kerbside recycling in the four partnership areas. more...
18 Feb 2010
Consumers and businesses should shift their consumption attitudes to help resource efficiency, suggests Liz Goodwin UK businesses should shift their focus to making goods last longer by becoming service providers in order to optimise resource efficiency, according to Waste & Resources Action Programme chief executive Dr Liz Goodwin. Speaking at the Resource Waste Management Summit, Goodwin suggested that by developing business strategies focused on resource efficient practices, UK firms would have a competitive edge over others. She said: “Can we develop business models that allow businesses to make money out of providing a service rather than just providing us with stuff all the time?” more...
Local authorities will be willing to help retailers increase battery recycling but the onus to provide collection facilities should be put on the producer not the councils, according to the Local Government Association.From February 1, UK retailers which sell more than 32kg of portable batteries per year (equivalent of one four-pack of AA batteries a day) in an individual store, over the internet or via mail order, are obliged to take back used batteries from the public free of charge. The British Retail Consortium argued that retailers should not be expected to bear the entire responsibility
Home Retail Group develops re-useable sofa bag Home and general merchandiser firm, Home Retail Group, recognised through the Argos and Homebase brands, has launched an “innovative” packaging system for upholstered furniture to cut packaging waste. The re-usable sofa bag will replace traditional sofa packaging and is introduced at the point of manufacture before items are containerised for delivery to the UK. The final design of the re-useable sofa bag is a folded envelope of reinforced bubble wary material, not unlike a giant jiffy bag. It has a protective outer covering of low density polyethelylene and an inner lining of non-woven polypropylene tissue. more...
Some of the UK’s biggest stores are giving out incorrect advice to their customers when it comes to the recycling of electrical goods, a new survey has revealed. The law says electrical retailers must offer customers a way to recycle their old electrical goods free of charge.
Biffa signs three-year contract to take Sainsbury's food waste Waste management firm Biffa has signed a contract with Sainsbury’s to process its Midlands food waste using anaerobic digestion. Over three years, Biffa will handle food waste from 40 Sainsbury’s Midlands stores in another step towards diverting all the supermarket’s food waste from landfill. more...
Supermarket Asda has launched a new trial today (25 January) that will see fabric conditioner being sold in re-usebale pouches from vending machines, introducing a new concept in shopping and reducing packaging waste. The trial, which has been funded by the Waste & Resources Action Programme, and partners eziserv [packaging innovation firm], McBrides and Unilever, begins in Asda’s Barnsley store and will be rolled out across four other Asda stores.
Retail giant Tesco has launched the first of its new “Buy One Get One Free Later” deals to help cut down on food waste. Over the next two weeks customers choosing pineapple, melon, salad and lettuce offers can claim their free product on the same day or pick one up the following week. It will only be valid for “short-code life-perishable products”.
Sainsbury's switches from cans to cartons for its Basics tomatoes Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has announced plans to sell its Basics tinned chopped tomatoes in cardboard cartons rather than cans in a move which they believe could reduce packaging by half a million kilos per year. This latest plan forms part of the supermarket’s drive to cut its packaging by a third by 2015.
M&S Scotland to use '100 per cent' renewable energy Marks and Spencer is buying enough renewable energy to power almost all its Scottish stores and offices from SmartestEnergy, the UK’s largest purchaser and supplier of independently generated electricity. Inenco, M&S’s energy consultant, deal with the agreement which will begin from April 2010 for four years. more...
30 Nov 2009
New recycling label hits 50 signatories The Molson Coors Brewing Company has become the fiftieth firm to sign up to the standardised on-pack recycling label that was launched seven months ago by the British Retail Consortium. Over this time participants have put the label on 50,000 different product lines.The universal recycling logo is designed to increase recycling rates by telling customers how likely it is that a particular piece of packaging can be recycled where they live. more...
UK retailers aim to divert waste from landfill so that less than 25 per cent is landfilled by 2013, according to a report. Produced by the British Retail Consortium, A Better Retailing Climate Progress Report 2009 provides updates on climate change goals set by retailers last year on how they will reduce the environmental impact of their businesses by 2013.
Health food retailer Holland & Barrett is introducing a total ban on plastic carrier bags as part of its environmental strategy ‘Plan-It-Green’ to reduce waste.From 1 January 2010 plastic carrier bags will be replaced by jute, cotton or paper carrier bags and a small fee will be charged. H&B gives out on average 7.6 million plastic bags a year. H&B chief executive Peter Aldis said: “Many retailers have introduced half measures such as charging for plastic bags in a bid to encourage their customers to shy away from using them.
Fast-food chain McDonald’s has reduced its carbon emissions in waste management by 48 per cent in London since June and diverted its non-recyclable waste from landfill. The store is working towards a “zero waste” to landfill strategy and 25 London restaurants are implementing an energy from waste programme.
Sainsbury’s and light bulb recycling company Recolight will run a scheme to collect end-of-life energy saving light bulbs and batteries from Sainsbury’s stores. The retailer claims that this makes Sainsbury’s the first supermarket to offer a joint collection of light bulbs and batteries for consumers.
Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco has unveiled plans to cut the amount of food waste in Britain by introducing a “buy one get one free – later” scheme. The BOGOFL offer means customers will be encouraged to pick up the second item at a later date.
Retail giant Tesco has joined the BatteryBack producer compliance scheme. Tesco purchasing manager Huw Clifford said: “We believe major retailers will be key in helping Britain reach its annual battery recycling target. Tesco will be rolling out battery collection points across all stores in advance of the national campaign that starts next February. Only when collection points are in place will consumers begin to recycle their spent batteries.
Straight achieves £17.2m revenue in 2009's first half Recycling container supplier Straight, achieved a 27 per cent revenue increase in the first half of the year from the same period in 2008. Up to the end of June 2009 Straight reports revenue of £17.2m against 2008’s figure of £13.5m. more...
High street store Boots has announced that it will extend its national recycling campaign to include a wider range of consumer electronic products that customers can exchange for up to 5,000 Advantage Card points to spend on anything in-store. Following its initiative to recycle mobile phone and inkjet cartridges (June 2008), Boots has decided to include more products to benefit its customers further. The products that can now be recycled include digital cameras, MP3 players and satellite navigation systems.
Six DIY retail giants have signed an “historic agreement” to reduce packaging and waste to landfill, under a new voluntary industry initiative led by the Waste & Resources Action Programme. Wickes, B&Q, Homebase, Argos, Focus and Henkel have agreed to work together for the first time to achieve a 15 per cent packaging reduction and a 50 per cent reduction in waste to landfill by the end of 2012, against a 2007 baseline. They will also look at ways to help consumers recycle more.
British Retail Consortium calls for domestic appliance scrappage scheme The British Retail Consortium has called on the Government to introduce a domestic appliance scrappage scheme similar to the car industry scrappage scheme in the UK. The BRC wants the Government to waive the 15 per cent VAT on white goods such as fridges and washing machines when customers trade up. The body claims it will encourage consumers to replace old energy consuming appliances with ‘greener’ versions and stimulate the economy. more...
Food waste recycler PDM and supermarket Tesco have defended their right to recycle waste meat to create energy. The news comes after the Daily Mail(6 August) reported that animal rights campaign group Vegetarians International Voice for Animals said vegetarians in particular would be alarmed to discover that their houses were being part-powered by out-of-date meat.
Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has changed the packaging of their soft fruit range and moved from trays with rigid clip-on lids to a heat sealed flexible lidding film to reduce packaging waste.
The packaging is delivered by global packaging firm Amcor Flexibles. This new packaging format allows Sainsbury’s to reduce the packaging weight from their soft fruit range by up to 87 per cent and is available for strawberries, cherries and plums.
More than 70 per cent of the UK population are recycling their Argos catalogues, according to a new survey. Argoscorporate responsibility manager Laurence Singer told MRW that an internal Argos survey showed that 78 per cent of the population recycled their Argos catalogue. He said: “This is an improvement from five years ago when the figure was 33 per cent of the population who recycled their catalogues. But I am not sure you can make a direct comparison because this survey may have used different samples.”
Retailers will not make the most of their ‘reverse haulage’ systems because of the Government’s reluctance to ease strict guidelines on waste batteries, according to the British Retail Consortium.The BRC has responded critically to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs advisory note entitled Storage and transport of portable batteries(24 July). The note was produced to assist stakeholders, retailers and collectors in understanding what they need to do when collecting and transporting waste batteries (see MRW story).
Plastic bags are a poor measure of a supermarket’s “real greenness”, according to Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King. Writing in The Mirror (23 July), King said: “Plastic bags make up a tiny proportion of the average person’s carbon footprint – less than 0.05 per cent, according to one study.
Marks & Spencer and Oxfam are offering M&S vouchers to shoppers who recycle old curtains, cushions, throws and bed linen. The M&S and Oxfam soft furnishings exchange is designed to raise money for Oxfam’s charity work and to reduce the amount of textiles sent to landfill.
Retailers "narrowly miss" single-use carrier bags reduction target UK retailers have failed to meet their voluntary single-use carrier bag reduction target by two per cent. At the end of 2008, seven supermarket giants made a voluntary pledge with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Department of Environment to reduce the number of single-use carrier bags used by customers by 50 per cent by the end of May 2009, compared with May 2006. more...
The Local Government Association has written to Environment Secretary Hilary Benn to call on the Government to force supermarkets to reveal how much packaging they produce much to the disappointment of a packaging industry trade body. In a letter to Benn, the LGA calls for the information to be published so that shoppers can “see hard evidence to back up supermarkets’ claims that they are taking the problem of packaging seriously”.
The Waste & Resources Action Programme is leading a series of retail industry trials to explore the benefits of re-useable and refillable packaging systems to help retailers reduce packaging.
A number of projects are being undertaken in collaboration with major retailers, including Asda, B&Q and Crown Paints. The projects will also aim to reduce product damage and save on costs
Supermarket Asda has launched a drinks can recycling programme to run across 49 of its stores in the north west of England. Asda has partnered up with Every Can Counts, a partnership between drinks can manufacturers, the recycling industry and waste management companies. It is being implemented back of store as part of Asda’s initiative to send zero waste to landfill by the end of 2010.
Retail giant Tesco has cut its packaging weight reduction target from 25 per cent by 2010 to 15 per cent by 2010. The supermarket chain has recently released its corporate responsibility report 2009. The report states: “Since we started working with our suppliers and the wider industry to reduce packaging it has become clear that this is a complex issue and that weight alone may not be the most beneficial and environmentally comprehensive measure. While we have already made great progress towards our target, we are working with suppliers and experts to understand what is best environmental and sustainable practice for packaging along the supply chain.”
Retailers slammed over use of plastic bags for online deliveries Supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Tesco have been criticised by consumer watchdogs for using too many plastic bags for online shopping orders. Which? magazine (July 2009 edition) asked volunteers to try online shopping and got its researchers to order the same 29 items from all five online supermarkets: Asda.com, Ocado.com, Sainsburys.co.uk, Tesco.com and Waitrosedeliver.com. more...
Sainsbury’s will be the first supermarket to swap its cardboard cereal boxes with recyclable plastic bags in an attempt to reduce packaging waste. The supermarket plans to sell its own-brand cereal in the plastic bags but the switch has been met with a mixed response from customers with some saying the bags would be inconvenient and would lead to cereal being squashed into dust.
M&S 'closes the loop' with food-grade recycled plastic For the first time, Marks & Spencer this week will sell food packaged with plastic recycled in Britain. The retailer has worked with plastic recycling plant Closed Loop Recycling and packaging supplier Reynolds to supply it with food-grade recycled plastic. M&S’ salad boxes are the final step in a project to create a closed-loop for plastic food packaging in the UK, in which used bottles are recycled into new food containers. more...
Retailer Marks & Spencer has released its annual How we do business report, which documents its progress on reducing waste, in its five year sustainability plan, Plan A. M&S is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year and is half way through its Plan A which started in 2007 and finishes in 2012.
Boots rewards customers for recycling mobile phones Retail chain Boots has announced that it has given out 45 million Boots’ Advantage Card points to its customers through its recycling take-back scheme - Recycling Appeal. The campaign is run in conjunction with recycling firm Redeem and offers customers the chance to recycle old mobile phones and inkjet cartridges with the opportunity to earn up to 5,000 Advantage Card points by visiting www.boots.com/recycle. The Advantage Card system is a reward system that rewards customers with points that they can redeem to buy Boots’ products. more...
03 Jun 2009
McDonald's goes green Fast food giant McDonald’s has launched a report about what it is doing to cut waste and increase recycling in its stores across the world.The full report, Global Best of Green 2009, details around 80 environmental initiatives that the company has introduced across the world alongside a new marketing campaign. McDonald’s chief executive Jim Skinner said: “We’re working to reduce the energy use in our restaurants and striving to decrease the impacts of our packaging with new designs and a greater use of recycled materials.” more...
21 May 2009
Every bit of Tesco waste diverted from landfill helps More than 800 Tesco stores have diverted 100 per cent of their waste from landfill across four cities and regions: Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and within the M25.Tesco ultimately wants to divert 95 per cent of its waste by 2010 from all its UK stores. Chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said: “Climate change remains the major strategic challenge of our age. I fundamentally believe that business has a crucial role to play in tackling climate change, setting an example, guiding consumers towards more sustainable forms of consumption, making them affordable and providing the information on which to make informed green choices.” more...
21 May 2009
Asda says 'no' to plastic bag charge Consumers should not be charged for plastic bags and be “constrained”, according to Asda chief executive Andy Bond. Bond was speaking at the British Retail Consortium’s annual retail lecture in London on 19 May when he said that retailers “need to tread a fine line when it comes to constraining consumer behaviour in areas where we think change is required - whether that is carrier bag usage, alcohol consumption or even the sale of food deemed unhealthy”. more...
20 May 2009
Marks and Spencer's Plan A makes "good progress" - COMMENT UPDATE Retailer Marks & Spencer has made “good progress” in its Plan A programme to tackle climate change and reduce waste. M&S launched Plan A two years ago and by 2012 it aims to ensure none of its clothing or packaging end up in landfill. more...
19 May 2009
Mothercare takes sustainable steps Mother-and-baby chain Mothercare has awarded waste firm Severnside Recycling with a three-year recycling contract. Mothercare group business development manager Emma Conroy said: “We aim to reduce the amount of waste we currently send to landfill by encouraging recycling and sustainability across all our stores." more...
15 May 2009
Asda launches free bag initiative Supermarket Asda has launched a two week ‘bag for life’ give away to help reduce carrier bag waste across all its UK stores. Plastic bags will be replaced with re-usable bags at check-outs free of charge for two weeks. Asda is committed to meeting a 50 per cent reduction target in carrier bag use. more...
14 May 2009
Tesco launches new recycling units Retail giant Tesco has launched new recycling units aimed at encouraging people to recycle ‘on the go’ in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. The move by Tesco will see recycling units, each worth £25,000, placed outside the supermarket’s smaller format high street stores in order to encourage more people to recycle their waste when they are ‘on the go’. more...
01 May 2009
WRAP urges the retail industry to help with its waste research The Waste & Resources Action Programme has invited the retail industry to take part in a research project to find out how much waste it generates. The project, which is aimed at grocery and home improvement retailers and their suppliers, will assess packaging, product and food waste generated throughout the supply chain from manufacture through distribution to back of store. The data could help businesses identify opportunities to make cost and environmental savings. more...
