Morrisons to trial 'zero waste' stores
Morrisons aims to recycle all packaging and unsold food by 2025
Morrisons is going to launch six 'zero-waste' stores, aiming to recycle all packaging and unsold food by 2025.
The supermarket chain also announced that it will introduce recycling points for many things not recycled in bin collections, items such as face masks, empty crisp packets and wrappers.
The trials are due to take place in Edinburgh in six stores, and if the trials go as planned, bosses will extend the 'zero waste' plan across all 498 stores within the next year.
The trials are in partnership with Nestle, which will be responsible for recycling soft plastics for the first time in the UK, with no waste shipped to other countries for processing.
Store waste will be sorted by staff in storage rooms, including soft and hard plastics, cardboard, food waste, green waste, PPE, tins, cans and foils.
To combat food waste, the supermarket said it will also offer more unsold goods through its Too Good To Go app, where surplus food is sold at a heavy discount.
James Winter, the sustainability procurement director at Morrisons, states that: "We We believe that we can, at a stroke, enable these trial stores to move from recycling around 27% of their general waste to over 84%, and with a clear line of sight to 100%.”
And Helen Bird, the strategic technical manager at recycling charity Wrap, said that “Until we have consistent and comprehensive household collections across the nations, supermarkets play a critical role to enable customers to recycle key items not collected at home".