M&S strikes innovative ‘closed loop’ deal with council kerbside collections

Greenwise Staff

18th February 2010

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has entered into innovative partnerships with four local authorities across the UK in a bid to secure more food packaging waste to recycle for its own use.

The partnerships, which are part of M&S’ 'Plan A' eco programme, have been described by the company as “pioneering” and will enable councils to collect an additional 60,000 tonnes of recyclable material from six million people every year by 2015.

The deals mean, every year, approximately 15,000 tonnes of packaging waste will be diverted back into food packaging and reused by M&S, in its efforts towards ‘closed loop’ recycling. The remaining 45,000 tonnes collected will be sold to other packaging producers.

Closed loop means waste material used in the manufacturing process is returned back to that same process for re-use.

"This is a pioneering project that we believe will change the face of recycling in the UK,” said Dr. Helene Roberts, M&S’ head of Packaging. “We are tackling this problem by providing funding directly to the people that can make a difference – local authorities. These partnerships mean that we will get the materials we need to close the recycling.”

M&S says it will invest £1.25 million over five years in the first partnership it has struck with Somerset County Council’s Waste Partnership. The investment will enable the council to add plastics and cardboard to the materials it collects from homes across its five district councils.

M&S in talks with Kent Waste Partnership over packaging waste recycling

The retailer said it was also in advanced talks with Kent Waste Partnership over a similar deal and expects to announce a further two deals later in the year.

Councillor Derek Yeomans, chair of Somerset Waste Partnership, said the deal was a first for Somerset. “This cross-sector co-operation will foster substantial service improvements for local people, and reduce the environmental impact of both local household waste and high street packaging.”

Dan Norris, Minister for Rural Affairs and Environment, welcomed the partnerships and encouraged other companies to follow M&S’ lead. “Improvements in the management of packaging waste will require all parts of the chain to work collectively. This will help us achieve the important aims of the Packaging Strategy," he said.

In 2007, M&S launched its five year eco and ethical plan, Plan A, which includes commitments to stop sending waste to landfill from its UK and Republic of Ireland operations, reduce use of packaging and carriers bags and use packaging materials from sustainable or recycled sources.

“Since the launch of Plan A in 2007 we’ve been on a journey to make our packaging more sustainable. We’ve achieved a 16 per cent reduction in food packaging and over 90 per cent is now recyclable,” said Roberts. “In order that we move to the next level, which is making more of our packaging with recycled content, we need more materials at a higher quality collected at the kerbside and made available to our suppliers.”