Five of the UKs largest retailers Tesco, J Sainsbury, Wal-Mart (ASDA), WM Morrisons and Marks and Spencer are all seeking to obtain zero waste to landfill by 2015 or sooner, a letsrecycle.com survey has found.
This months letsrecycle.com survey covered the top 10 retailers and found that they are all pursuing a raft of ambitious targets in an effort to improve their corporate social responsibility standing.
These range from zero waste pledges to lightweighting policies to attempts to increase consumer awareness of recycling.
And, while leading retailers have an increased intention of achieving zero waste to landfill, the John Lewis Partnership claims a zero waste to landfill is unobtainable.
The retailer claims that this is due to a small amount of residual waste that would remain from contaminated material and energy-from-waste processes.
In the research it emerged that the waste and recycling services of the top 10 retailers in the UK are provided by about 18 firms.
On the contractor side, the survey found a competitive sector, with a total of 18 firms providing waste and recycling services. DS Smith Recycling (formerly Severnside Recycling), Veolia and Biffa emerged as three of main waste and recycling companies serving the retail market.
On the compliance side, Valpak and BatteryBack possess large market shares for batteries and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). BatteryBack is a compliance scheme created and operated by Veolia and Leeds-based WasteCare.
The list of top 10 retailers is based on company documents and information on revenues for 2008/09 gathered from financial services Deloitte and trade publication Retail Week.
They are, in descending order: Tesco, J Sainsbury, Wal-Mart (Asda), WM Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Alliance Boots, DSG International, John Lewis Partnership, Co-operative Group and Home Retail Group.
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