Waitrose to axe black plastic bottle lids you can’t recycle

BLACK plastic lids on drinks bottles are to be switched to a clear plastic alternative by Waitrose to dramatically cut waste.

It is part of a wider move by the supermarket to remove black plastic packaging, including trays, from its aisles.

Black plastic cannot be identified by the laser sorting equipment in rubbish handling plants. As a result it is not recycled and so ends up being buried or burned for energy.

The supermarket says its move could prevent 17million tons of plastic a year going to landfill or incineration. Asda has previously announced it is switching its coloured plastic drinks bottles to clear ones to aid recycling.

Green campaigners say these voluntary measures are important, but argue amendments to the law are needed to ensure all manufacturers make the same changes.

For example, some countries, such as Norway, limit the types of plastic that can be used in drinks bottles, which means it is easier and cheaper to recycle them.

Norway also has a deposit and return scheme – or DRS – on bottles and cans, which means the country has a much higher collection and recycling rate than the UK.

The Scottish Daily Mail’s Banish the Bottles campaign, launched last February, called for such a scheme. A 10p charge would be added to bottles and cans, which is refunded when they are returned for recycling. The Scottish Government has since committed to the initiative, which is due to be implemented within the next two years.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said earlier this year that legislation banning plastic straws could be in place by next year – with plans also to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds and products containing microbeads.

Waitrose claims it is moving faster than any other retailer to eliminate black plastic. The use of black plastic trays for fruit, vegetables, meat and fish will end by December and the rest phased out during 2019.

The chain’s Food to Go buyer, Roxanne Bennett, said: ‘Our pledge to phase out all own-label black plastic packaging shows how seriously we’re taking this issue.’

Meanwhile, supermarket chain Iceland is introducing a reverse vending machine that will offer 10p for every waste plastic bottle.

Polls show a DRS has the support of 80 per cent of the UK population, who have been alerted to the issue by the Mail’s Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign.

An estimated 35million plastic bottles are sold in the UK every day. Less than 60 per cent are recycled.