Sainsbury’s launches recycling system for flexible plastic packaging

Following a successful trial in the North East of England, a total of 520 supermarkets will have front of store recycling points to correctly dispose their flexible plastic packaging, including crisp packets, food pouches, salad bags and biscuit and cake wrappers – which Sainsbury’s said 83% of UK local authorities currently don’t accept for recycling.

The news follows the announcement that Sainsbury’s joined the Flexible Plastic Fund – an initiative which aims to ensure flexible plastics are properly recycled. Although flexible plastic represents a fifth of all UK citizen plastic packaging, only 6% is collected for recycling currently.

Claire Hughes, director of product and innovation at Sainsbury’s, said: “Making recycling easier for our customers is a key part of our strategy to minimise the impact of single-use plastics on the environment, alongside our own ambitious target of reducing the use of plastics in our own operations by 50% by 2025.”