Tesco offers loyalty points for re-using carrier bags

Announced today by Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy, the reward scheme will see up to 13 million UK households offered loyalty card points if they bring their own shopping bags to the checkout.

Tesco believes the Clubcard loyalty scheme is the perfect tool for getting shoppers to change their behaviour

The “green” points will be offered from August 14th, when a series of prime time television advertisements featuring Ronnie Corbett and Frankie Dettori will publicise the campaign.

Today's announcement came three months after Tesco was accused by the Liberal Democrats of failing to understand the plastic bag problem (see letsrecycle.com story).

The move is the latest in a series of environmental pledges made by Tesco to cut waste and reduce the impact of its packaging and carrier bags. These include making bags thicker bags to encourage re-use and designing bags to biodegrade.

Speaking at the launch, Sir Terry said: “Carrier bags are an important part of the shopping trip, but we know that many people are concerned about how many bags they use.

“We have had a team looking at carrier bags, trialling different ideas in our stores and talking to customers about what we could do to encourage them to use fewer bags and to recycle the ones they do use,” he said.

Incentives
Around half of the 30 million tonnes of household waste produced each year comes from supermarkets and convenience stores – about a third of which derives from products sold in Tesco stores.

Sir Terry said giving customers financial incentives to re-use their bags was the best way to change their behaviour. “We have to move the emphasis away from trying to force change and onto rewarding positive behaviour,” he said. “In other words, a more &#39ca;rrot' than 'stick' approach.”

Tesco's chief executive officer added that the company's “Clubcard” loyalty card scheme was a particualarly effective tool.

He said: “Clubcard has changed the way we serve our customers over the last 10 years and made us a more responsive business. I believe we can use it to respond to the very real concerns people have over environmental issues like carrier bags and bring about a major shift in behaviour.

“Our aim is to cut the number of bags we give out by 25% over the next two years – if we make it, that’s a billion fewer bags per year.”

“Imaginative”
Tesco's announcement today was welcomed by the government's recycling awareness and market development organisation, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which has campaigned for retailers to cut down on plastic bag use (see letsrecycle.com story)

WRAP's chief executive, Jennie Price, said: “Using Club Card points to promote the reuse of plastic bags is a very positive and imaginative move by Tesco and we hope it will encourage many of its customers to limit the number of new bags they take at the checkout.”

Mrs Price said that Tesco's move would help tackle the chuck away culture across the board.

She said: “Encouraging customers to make a small change in their shopping habits here may lead them to extend their thinking to other areas, making it easier to find solutions to the wider packaging and food waste issues.”