Co-op to pioneer UK scheme for the recycling of plastic film

THE Co-op will become the first British supermarket to launch a nationwide plastic film recycling scheme next year.

The chain will encourage shoppers to take the hard-to-recycle substances to drop-off points across its network, with the plastic film to be turned into plywood panels.

The announcement came as the Coop released a report which found that total “ethical spending” in the UK has increased almost four-fold in the past 20 years. The average spend on ethical purchases per household has grown from £202 a year in 1999 to £1,278 in 2018, the report estimates.

Alongside its plastic film recycling scheme, the Co-op has promised to use only 100 per cent own-brand recyclable packaging, bringing forward a previous commitment by three years.

The damage wrought by plastic on the environment, and in particular marine habitats, has captured public attention in the last two years, thanks largely to Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II series and other exposure.

Thin plastic films are banned from most conventional recycling facilities because they easily become wrapped or tangled around moving machinery.

Jo Whitfield, the chief executive of Co-op Food, said: “We should rightly celebrate the growth that we’ve seen in ethical markets in the UK over the last 20 years.

“That’s why we’ve brought forward our commitment on own-brand recyclable plastic by three years, why we’re committed to reducing unnecessary packaging and why our long-term vision is to be a carbon-neutral business.

“From today, black plastic is banned and by the summer we’ll have pioneered a Uk-wide recycling scheme for hard-to-recycle plastic film.”

Only half of the 2.3million tons of plastic placed on the UK market every year is being recycled, resulting in 1.2 million tons of plastic packaging used for consumer goods ending up in landfill, the Co-op says.