Do me a favour leave your plastic wrapping at the supermarket!

Dont fret, this old softie hasnt suddenly turned into an an all-guns-ablazing activist overnight but I have come across some good news that will help householders across the country quietly join the move towards a more active zero waste lifestyle.

Reported in this weeks LetsRecycle bulletin is the news that the UKs key supermarkets (Asda; The Co-operative Group; WM Morrison; J Sainsbury’s; Tesco; and Waitrose) are officially accepting thin plastic film packaging through their existing in-store bag recycling facilities.

This wont be a new idea to some as several supermarkets have been doing this already, but it is welcome news that this recycling facility is now officially being rolled out at more than 4500 stores across the UK, providing customers with a place to leave packaging such as cereal bags, toilet roll packaging and multi-can wrappers.

What really struck me about the value of collecting back these materials was that according to LetsRecycle, this type of plastic makes up 43% of all plastic household packaging, weighing in at 645,000 tonnes each year.   Plastic bottles make up only 32%, or 480,000 tonnes, by comparison.  Wowsers!  It just goes to show how much there is knocking around this planet of hours and thats a lot of plastic that would otherwise go to waste if it is simply dumped in the rubbish bin.

Of course, much of this packaging can be reduced at source or reused at home (e.g. bread bags being repurposed as sandwich wrappers, and loo roll bags doubling up as bin bags), but much of it can now go back to the supermarket to be reprocessed.  To find out more information about this scheme and the on-pack recycling label that underpins it, visit Caelia Quinaults article at LetsRecycle.com Supermarkets take back plastic film in-store.   Oh....and tell your friends.  Well theres no point in keeping news like this to ourselves is there.

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Can you recycle plastic film at your supermarket

Whilst shopping today, I noticed that the carrier bag recycling bin had a new label on it, announcing that the store is also now collecting plastic film, you know the stretchy stuff that you get around loo rolls, multipack shrink-wrap as well as the bags inside cereal boxes.

So as its National Zero Waste Week, Im setting you a mini challenge.

Next time youre at the supermarket, it would be great if you could check if yours has got a similar facility.

If youve not spotted it before you may be surprised as this should now be available in over 4,500 supermarkets nationwide.  If you dont believe me, take a look at this press release that was published by the British Retail Consortium in April.


Of course the next step is to check the recycling information on packaging.  If you see a label like the one shown above, youll know that you can add it to the carrier bag collection as its made from either LDPE or HDPE plastic film.  If the labellings not clear, which is still often the case, you could always check with customer services.

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This post was published in support of National Zero Waste Week.  For more information about the grassroots campaign, please visit www.myzerowaste.com.

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Saving energy on a supermarket sweep

A couple of weeks ago I attended a sponsored bloggers lunch at a sustainable restaurant in West Hampstead to mark the launch of Sainsburys consumer energy-saving initiative, in conjunction with British Gas.

British Gas and Sainsburys had already partnered to offer customers gas and electricity services through Sainsburys Energy but the buzz of the day or indeed that week was the launch of a new range of products and services that can actually save their customers energy while they shop!

Yes I know, I too have got that same image of busy customers flocking to Sainsburys and being wafted with natural fans and fruity cocktails, while the fresh young interns do the supermarket dash to fullfil that part of their training programme, leaving them suitably recharged to go about the rest of their business.  Ok, only in my own dreams then!

Cutting back to the real world, what we are really talking about here is a prime opportunity to help shoppers become more sustainable in their energy usage, through new services such as home insulation, solar panels and energy monitors.  This stuff that is normally reserved for the mysterious world of eco or sensible- living enthusiasts has finally made it onto a mainstream supermarket floor.

With six permanent energy centres and one mobile unit, Sainsburys customers will be able to get advice instore whilst picking up their weekly shopping, and for many, their starting point will be to book a home-assessment to calculate their current energy rating.  Of course, customers are rewarded with a range of Nectar points for any of the services and products they choose.

Now what I find quite interesting about all this, is not the service offering itself...  (despite the urgency for us all to save energy due to issues of peak oil and climate change, Im afraid that the subject doesnt quite float my daily boat)...but more so the increased opportunities that supermarkets have in influencing consumer behaviour.

With so many shoppers dependent on their local supermarkets for the bulk of their shopping, it makes sense that such major retailers can offer a range of services to help consumers become greener.  The more profitable the service is to a retailer, the more it can expand and deliver the message, and the more customers there will be sat at home saving energy and benefiting from reduced fuel bills. 

Now being one of lifes dreamers, during the last couple of weeks, Ive let my thoughts wander in a rather frivulous direction about the power that supermarkets have to influence consumer action and how they can actively raise awareness to help customers keep their green halos polished to a sparkle.  And I have to admit, Ive seen some great examples on the Sainsburys website about what theyre doing in the particular area that does get me very excited... i.e..reducing waste.

And in this sector (with the exception of some understandable localised disappointment) Sainsburys generally seems to be stepping up to the mark on strategic waste reduction initiatives, including reducing product packaging, leading a UK based  mixed plastics recycling trial and diverting food waste from landfill through donating surplus food to Fareshare, before even considering solutions such as anaerobic digestion.  The company is also working hard on its stock control and forecasting to reduce surplus food in the first place.

I suppose the only key things on my wish list that arent yet fulfilled are comprehensive onsite Tetra Pak recycling banks for customers to return the ubiquitous carton in areas where kerbside collection isnt available.  And I also think that supermarkets should give their support to washable nappies and sanitary products too, to help raise wider awareness that convenient products are available in our disposable oriented culture.

But coming back to the subject of energy you dont need to be a Sainsburys Energy customer to add loft insulation to your basket of energy-saving solution or any of their other products for that matter, but if you want to convert, bear in mind that their Green Energy solution is not available yet.  Apparently its in the pipeline (what a relevant turn of phrase) and wont be long.  For the moment the energy-saving products are the priority.

And finally, if youre a Sainsburys customer and you havent done so already, you might find it useful to hunt down the low energy lightbulb recycling bank. Apparently, news on the street is that theres now a bank in every store, making it a convenient solution to recycling your energy-saving bulbs.  And you can tell how long its been since Ive popped down to our local supermarket.  I took a tourist snap for my memoirs and made a mental note that its another service thats closer to home than my household waste recycling centre..its just a shame I forgot to take my bulbs while I was passing.  Oh well, no-ones perfect!  Maybe next time eh!

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Blogger disclosure: the blogger lunch was arranged by PR company TVC, who also covered travel expenses to the event and provided attendees with a range of Sainsburys products as a thank you for attendance.   This has not influenced the nature of this post or indeed my opinion, as I would have attended anyway and reported back in the same way.  It just means it cost a lot less to get there, I had some food I could cook when I got back and if my hob was electric I could have monitored how much energy I used to cook it!

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