Marks and Spencer has announced a "pioneering" approach to producer responsibility with plans to invest directly in four local authority waste partnerships to improve kerbside recycling collections.

The M&S investment is intended to help expand kerbside recycling collections in Somerset

Under proposals announced today (February 18), M&S intends to increase the amount of dry recyclables collected at the kerbside by 60,000 tonnes-a-year by 2015. This would be equivalent to the amount of packaging M&S produces annually.

The Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) - which represents six district and borough councils and the county council - is the first waste authority to agree to the deal and will receive £1.25 million from M&S over the next five years, while the retailer is also in "advanced talks" with the Kent Waste Partnership.

The partnership working is seen as a means of ‘closing the loop' and ensuring at least 15,000 tonnes of packaging waste is diverted back into food packaging and reused by M&S, with the remaining 45,000 tonnes of material set to be sold to other packaging producers.

Dr Helene Roberts, head of packaging at Marks & Spencer, said: "This is a pioneering project that we believe will change the face of recycling in the UK. We are tackling this problem by providing funding directly to the people that can make a difference - local authorities."

A spokesman for M&S explained that the deal would offer "better traceability" and also "greater access" to recycled material for the retailer, which has previously signed deals with firms such as Greenstar WES to help increase the recycled content in its plastic bottles (see letsrecycle.com story).

The proposal is being launched as part of M&S's corporate social responsibility scheme Plan A, which was launched in 2005 as a means of committing to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill from its UK and Republic of Ireland operations.

Somerset

Under its plans, M&S hopes to enable the Somerset Waste Partnership to purchase new collection vehicles to allow it to collect plastic bottles and cardboard in its kerbside for the first time.

SWP approved plans to collect plastic bottles and cardboard as part of its ‘Sort-It Plus' kerbside service in July 2009, following trials which showed the items could be added with the use of ‘single-pass' kerbside collection vehicles (see letsrecycle.com story). The M&S investment will go towards helping to finance the vehicles.

Commenting on the partnership working, Steve Read, managing director of the SWP, told letsrecycle.com: "The whole [Sort-It Plus] package is going to cost £1.6 million a year, which is collection costs for year-on-year and the guys doing it and the capital costs of the new vehicles in an annualised way.

"The M&S contribution works out at around 15% of the costs, which is a significant amount. It is going to change the landscape a little bit on how producer responsibility works," he added.
Marks & Spencer said it would announce the further two waste partnerships it intends to work with later in the year.

M&S told said the authorities chosen by the retailer would "ensure a good geographical spread and areas that covered large parts of the country".

The proposals by M&S were welcomed by environment minister Dan Norris, who praised the move as putting "producer responsibility into direct action".

He said: "Improvements in the management of packaging waste will require all parts of the chain to work collectively. This will help us achieve the important aims of the Packaging Strategy. That is really significant first step and I would encourage others to follow this lead."