The Co-op’s award winning in-store recycling scheme for soft plastic film and product wrapping has now been introduced across Isle of Man.
The convenience retailer first introduced the scheme last year to provide an accessible disposal route for materials which are unlikely to be collected by local authorities, including: crisp packets, bread bags, single-use carrier bags and bags-for-life, lids from ready meals and yogurt pots, biscuit wrappers and pet-food pouches.
Previously available in its Ramsey store, the scheme – Europe’s most extensive in-store soft-plastic recycling scheme – is now available in all 11 of its stores across the Isle of Man.
The in-store recycling units – which also accept packaging for food products purchased in other retailers – mean that all Co-op’s own brand food packaging is easy-to-recycle either via household kerbside collection or through its soft plastic recycling scheme. The move is also designed to reassure communities that plastics collected will be recycled and turned into useful secondary products.
Andy Corrie, Co-op Operations Manager, Isle of Man, said: “Co-op is committed to making it easier for households to recycle all of their plastic food packaging, not only preventing unnecessary waste but also reducing plastic pollution. By offering a simple and convenient solution to an everyday issue, we can help shoppers make small changes, that together add up to a big difference for our environment.”
Co-op first undertook a successful 50 store soft-plastic recycling trial in 2020 and found that 86% of shoppers were likely to use the service. It has since rolled out the scheme to over 2,300 of its stores. The recyclable material is turned into post-consumer plastic granules which are then made into items such as: bin liners; rigid products such as buckets, and material for the construction industry.
Co-op has always been at the forefront of removing hidden plastic and unnecessary packaging, from removing plastic stems from cotton buds before any other retailer more than 14 years ago to banning microbeads and, removing black (so called ‘vanity’) plastic from shelves in 2019.
For more information about Co-op’s in-store soft plastic recycling scheme – which invites shoppers to ‘Clean-it. Scrunch-it. Co-op it’ – visit: https://www.coop.co.uk/environment/soft-plastics