More Wiltshire Co-op stores offering soft plastic recycling
It's for things like cling film, biscuit wrappers and carrier bags
Following the success of its trials and in response to customer demand, Southern Co-op now has soft plastics recycling bins in four more of its stores in Wiltshire - making a total of 167 across the south of England.
The independent, regional co-operative hopes its expansion of soft plastics recycling bins to more than 80% of all of its stores will enable more customers to safely recycle materials that can't be recycled at home.
Simon Eastwood, Chief Operating Officer for Retail at Southern Co-op, said:
"We started to trial these towards the end of last year and they have been really well received by both customers and colleagues."
"We would ask recyclers to double check if their plastics can be recycled before putting it in the bin. One way to do this is the scrunch test. It also needs to have had a quick clean but it doesn't need to have been bought in store to be recycled with us."
All Co-op branded food packaging is now easy to recycle through a combination of kerbside collections and soft plastic recycling in store.
Once collected, the recyclable material is sent to a company called Jayplas which will turn it into post-consumer plastic granules. These are then made into secondary products such as bin liners, buckets, and construction industry materials.
Examples of acceptable items for recycling project include:
Gemma Lacey, Director of Sustainability and Communications at Southern Co-op, said:
"We all need to do our bit to ensure our future is waste free. We are really pleased with how the trials of soft plastic recycling has gone so far and are now keen to enable more people to make use of it. We know the appetite for change is there within our communities and together we can all play our part in making a positive difference to our environment and our communities."
Stores in Wiltshire with soft plastic recycling bins include The Co-operative Food in Old Sarum's Crosier Close, Mere's The Square, as well as Bradford On Avon's Winsley Road, and Corsham's Macie Drive.
All store waste is already diverted from landfill with dry mixed items separated for recycling and food broken down to produce biogas and bio-fertiliser through anaerobic digestion. This is one area of work which forms part of Southern Co-op's climate action activity. It also has ambitious science-based targets to cut direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from its business by 2030.
Take a look at Southern Co-op's commitment to climate change here.