Market Drayton Climate Action’s Responsible Consumption team recently asked local supermarket Morrisons about their plastic packaging on fresh fruit and vegetables. Although the store is unable to pursue local suggestions for how to present produce that is UK-grown, their national sustainability policy includes a win for the climate.
With a large investment into the world-first Yes Recycling flexible food packaging recycling facility in Fife (https://www.yesrecycling.org/), Morrisons, the first supermarket to own recycling facilities in the UK, intends by 2025 to be recycling the equivalent quantity of hard-to-recycle soft plastic packaging as it puts on the market. The facility can currently process 15,000 tonnes per year.
Morrisons also intends to have an average of 30% recycled content in its own plastic packaging, a 50% reduction in own brand primary packaging (versus a 2017 baseline), 70% of all plastic packaging to be recycled, and 100% of all plastic packaging to be recyclable, reusable, or compostable, by 2025.
Recycling soft plastics ensures that the materials are not lost to landfill or incineration but rather are able to continue being a useful resource for making new plastics. This ensures the carbon in the plastics is not lost to the atmosphere, so won’t contribute to climate change, while supporting a circular economy, which is also better for our planet.
Until the local Morrisons store has a collection point for (clean) soft plastics such as fruit and vegetable bags or wrappers, biscuit and crisp packets, bread bags, and pet food pouches, you can take them along to the local Lidl supermarket near the bus station, which has a collection point after you go through the tills.
Responsible Consumption Team
Market Drayton Climate Action 