The announcement from M&S comes as part of its sustainability pledge Plan A, and is also part of a wider industry interest in increasing recycled content in food and drinks packaging (see letsrecycle.com story).
Dr Helene Roberts, M&S head of packaging, said: “This is a major step forwards for M&S recycling and really does ‘close the loop' for UK food recycling. It is a win-win situation for everyone – M&S consumers can buy one of our salads and know that when they put the box in their recycle bin they are supporting the recycling of bottles within the UK.”
“This also means that we can increase the amount of recycled content in our food packaging whilst driving the market for food packaging recycling in the UK,” she added.
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M&S, which also has deals in place with plastics recycling company AWS Ecoplastics and waste management firm Greenstar to supply feedstock for its recycled packaging, has said that it intends to increase the recycled content in its packaging “as as more recycled PET can be produced in the UK”.
The supermarket chain is also working with Closed Loop to offer a food packaging recycling service for offices in Greater London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester, which M&S hopes to extend to all regions by 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Under the scheme, all packaging in the ‘Food to Go' range carries the Closed Loop Recycling logo and details on how consumers can sign their office up to the scheme.
Chris Dow, managing director at Closed Loop, said: “We are really keen to make recycling as easy as possible. We are thrilled that a retailer like M&S has decided to offer this scheme to other offices.”
“This is a clear message that we all need to do what we can to recycle as much as possible. Each plastic bottle that we recycle reduces the carbon footprint by 55%, saving fossil fuel consumption is less pressure on the environment,” he added.
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