main content

% waste recycled Next year we aim to increase the amount of waste recycled to 68%.	Recycling in our operations We have an internal programme for recycling paper, cardboard and plastic, and more than 80% of these materials are recycled. Over the past year we have increased the proportion of the store waste recycled from 60% to 65%, an increase of 20,000 tonnes. We continually visit and audit stores to encourage staff to improve the amount of cardboard and plastic recycled. Stores with poor recycling rates are given third-party training in best recycling practice. The bulk of the waste we send to landfill is food waste. We are investigating the viability and sustainability of new technologies that provide alternatives to landfill, including composting, aerobic digestion and gasification.
The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP, UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, officially opens our recycling machine at our Winchester store, along with pupils from the nearby Windale Primary School, December 2004.	Recycling by customers Across the UK, Tesco accounts for 13% of all material collected for recycling by local authorities, through recycling facilities at 450 Tesco superstores. Recycling is a key issue for us and for our customers. With 9 out of 10 people saying they would recycle if it were easier to do so, Tesco is constantly looking for ways to help. This year, we introduced Britain’s first fully automated recycling machine, which sorts plastic, metal and glass, rather than expecting our customers to do so. The machine uses revolving arms to throw bottles at an inbuilt stone wall and knives to shred plastic. Breaking the waste down in this way means that the new machine stores 50 times as much waste, and needs to be emptied less frequently as a traditional recycling unit. Our research predicts that the new equipment will encourage our customers to triple the amount of waste they bring to stores for recycling.
This first pilot machine is operating in Winchester and initial feedback from customers is very positive. We are extending the trial to five more stores in 2005. We are working with the UK Government’s Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to deliver the further trial units.
Mobile phone and inkjet recycling by customers raised £200,000 for seven UK charities.	This year we worked in partnership with The Woodland Trust to collect over 630 tonnes of Christmas cards for recycling, nearly 9 million more cards than last year. We have also collected over 100,000 mobile phones and 174,160 inkjet cartridges for recycling, raising a total of £200,000 which was shared by the Alzheimer’s Society, NCH, Cystic Fibrosis, Barnardo’s, Multiple Sclerosis, RNIB and Help the Hospices. In 2004, we were one of the first supermarkets to introduce degradable plastic carrier bags into our UK stores. These bags break down in as little as 60 days into biomass, carbon dioxide, water and mineral matter, with no harmful residue, unlike conventional plastic carrier bags. An estimated 719 million degradable carrier bags have since been used by our customers, which means that the equivalent of 6,035 tonnes of non-degradable plastic has been offset.

Green trays

In 2000, Tesco pioneered the use of reusable plastic crates – our award-winning green trays – to replace cardboard boxes and other packaging to transport and display products. Green trays have subsequently been adopted all over the world, as they also protect products, minimising damage. This year we missed our target to increase the number of green tray trips by 10%, achieving an increase of 7%. We have consequently introduced a new software system to improve the tracking of trays to ensure we meet our future targets. While the increase in tray usage is mainly due to our sales growth, it still represents a saving of over 4,000 tonnes of cardboard packaging that otherwise would have been used.

Packaging

WRAP recently announced the launch of the Retail Innovation Fund to support retailers in reducing product packaging through design innovation. We are discussing a number of projects with WRAP– for example to improve the design of ready meal packaging, with the aim of reducing product packaging by 10%.

WEEE Directive

The EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive aims to encourage the recycling of old electrical and electronic equipment such as televisions and washing machines when new ones are bought. Tesco fully supports the principle of recovery, recycling and re-use, and we are working with the British Retail Consortium to provide a workable and effective compliance scheme that will help to provide a network of accessible collection facilities.