Tesco has announced its ambition to develop what it describes as a 'closed loop' system in its operations to address waste and recycling issues.
At an event hosted by IGD, Tesco said that it is pledging to: remove, reduce and redesign packaging materials and their use; improve recovery and recycling, ideally working with government on a national recycling infrastructure; and work to raise awareness and educate in order to change customer behaviour.
Commitment
“We are committed to reducing the total amount of packaging used across our business. Ideally we would like to move to a closed loop system," said Jason Tarry, Tesco's chief product officer.
“We will work with our suppliers to redesign and reduce all packaging materials and after consultation with our leading suppliers earlier this year we will remove all packaging that is hard to recycle from our business by 2019.
“To complete the journey to a closed loop approach, we stand ready to work with government to reform the current approach to recycling in the UK.”
To support its ambitions, Tesco has called on the UK government to establish a consistent recycling infrastructure across the country, where variations in current levels of actual recycling vary greatly.
As a part of its plan, the retailer said that it will also work to develop easy to understand packaging recycling communication and the amount of recycled materials it buys to help shoppers who want to reduce their packaging impact.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
