Marks & Spencer Switches to Recycled Salad Boxes

June 9, 2009

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Through a partnership with Closed Loop, a British recycling firm, retailer Marks & Spencer has switched to recycled salad boxes in order to help meet the UK goal of recycling 22.5 percent of packaging annually, reports International Supermarket News.

Previously, the retailer had been using 50 percent recycled packaging for salads. For Marks & Spencer, the move is key to helping it achieve goals in its Plan A for sustainability.

Closed Loop Recycling managing director Chris Dow said that the new packaging is made from bottles recycled in England, part of a strategy to decrease the carbon footprint of recycling itself.

Closed Loop also will be working with other UK retailers, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s. The company is working to provide food-grade recycled plastic to Coca-Cola and Solo Cup Europe, reports MRW.com.

In other news, British retailers largely concurred with a recent UK government report that says reducing the amount of packaging per item is not as important as encouraging recycling.

The report, “Making the Most of Packaging,” lays out the following strategy to optimize packaging:

design packaging in line with sustainability principles, and with re-usability, recyclability or recovery in mind
deliver real reductions in packaging, under existing and new voluntary agreements
market innovation and development which meet the growing demand for re-useable and recycled packaging, across all types of packaging.
increase recycling by householders through recycling schemes that collect all the main packaging materials
have local authorities and businesses treat waste packaging as a resource, leading to more recycling by businesses, and a new emphasis on quality in household collection and sorting.

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