Tesco has warned the war on plastic risks suffering a major setback unless governments and the industry agree to wide-ranging changes to landmark proposals including the UK’s deposit return scheme.
The supermarket, which swung its weight behind DRS in 2018, in a move which was seen as pivotal, said the chaos of the rollout in Scotland had shown the scheme would not be economically viable unless ministers could agree on a UK-wide approach.
In a report on progress today, Tesco announced it had removed more than two billion pieces of plastic from its business since launching its 4Rs – Remove, Reduce, Re-use, Recycle – packaging strategy in 2019.
However, it also warned that without government measures to speed up and simplify recycling infrastructure, as well as more joined-up efforts across industry to roll out offers such as reusable products at scale, such initiatives risked failing to hit their looming 2025 targets.
Unnecessary plastic
Tesco said tin the past year alone 500 million pieces of unnecessary plastic had been identified and removed. This included more than 30 million plastic yoghurt lids, 29 million pieces of plastic from limescale tablets packaging, and almost 24 million plastic windows from doughnut packs.
It also cited the “enormous impact” of slashing plastic from multipacks across the business. In 2020 it became the first UK retailer to replace plastic wrapped multipacks on all tinned food products with plastic-free multibuys, in conjunction with brands including Heinz.
However, it admitted the war on plastic faced major challenges, with a lack of a level regulatory playing field and an array of different approaches across retailers meaning initiatives were struggling to reach national scale.
Last year The Grocer revealed Tesco had quietly wound up its reusable packaging trial with eco company Loop, with Tesco and other supermarkets having struggled to get buy-in from consumers and suppliers in the cost of living crisis.
Collection points
Tesco also has the UK’s biggest network of soft plastic collection points at its stores. However, last week The Grocer revealed supermarkets were facing huge barriers to creating markets for the material amid long delays to promised government regulation in the area.
“We strongly welcome the government’s commitment to consistent kerbside collection and recycling infrastructure,” said Tesco chief product officer Ashwin Prasad.
“Tesco stands ready to play an active part in helping make recycling simple and easy for customers and this will play a major role. We strongly encourage an acceleration of the timetable for delivery.”
Meanwhile, Tesco is among supermarkets having called on the Scottish government to halt its proposed rollout of DRS until it can be launched in conjunction with a UK-wide system.
“We must learn the lessons from Scotland on deposit return schemes,” the report says.
“We have been testing DRS since 2018 and have built enormous expertise in how to make a scheme successful with customers, and financially viable.
“Having multiple different approaches within the UK jeopardises the sustainability and viability of schemes and a joined-up approach across the UK must be adopted.”
Prasad added: “We have made real, tangible and lasting progress through our 4Rs approach, and as we move towards 2025, we will keep up this momentum.
“We also recognise that only through industry collaboration and effective regulations to create a level playing field, can we achieve change greater than the sum of its parts.”
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