The recycling facilities we provide at our stores vary depending on the local council - and range from paper, aluminium, clothing and certain types of plastic. Collection points for carrier bags and batteries can be found in all our main stores. Here's a look at just some of the things we're doing to help customers and colleagues go green at Morrisons.
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We have signed up to the UK Plastics PACT
If you're looking for information about Morrisons and the UK Plastics Pact, click here. This is a collaborative commitment which joins up all stakeholders in the plastics system – businesses, Government, local authorities, Environmental Organisations, and the wider public to ensure that by 2025, all plastic packaging will be recyclable, reusable or compostable.
As signatories to WRAP’s UK Plastics PACT, we will work in collaboration with WRAP, other signatories and the industry so that together, by 2025, we aim to:
We're committed to making all of our own brand products 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025
We are committed to reducing unnecessary packaging, using recyclable or recycled material wherever possible, and working with suppliers on packaging innovation to ensure our packaging is only there to protect and preserve the product it contains. By 2019, we will remove problematic plastics from Morrisons products such as black plastic, PVC and EPS.
You can recycle your carrier bags, bread bags, cereal bags and many more at our carrier bag recycling points
In a recent survey of 4,000 Morrisons customers, 79% were not aware you can recycle more than carrier bags at our carrier bag recycling points in store - so we're happy to remind you that dedicated recycling points are indeed available in our stores. The majority of councils don't offer kerbside recycling of these items and if they're incorrectly placed in your green bin they will contaminate the recycling stream.
We've moved to paper bags for loose fruit and vegetables which are 100% recyclable
This will remove 174 million plastic bags, which is 269 tonnes of plastic. We're also moving flower bouquets from plastic wrap to paper. Standard bouquets were the first to be switched to the new paper wrap in September, with single flower bunches and The Best range following in early 2019. The new paper being used on our flower bouquets is called a ‘hydro paper’ which has wax mixed into it making it waterproof. It’s also FSC certified and 100% recyclable. This will save 925 tonnes of plastic a year.
You can recycle your used batteries at our battery recycling points in store
All Morrisons stores have battery recycling points which are typically situated at the front of store. We are supporting a campaign called Bring Back Heavy Metal which aims to increase recycling of batteries across the UK througout October. 178 million used batteries are hoarded in UK homes, so bringing yours with you to recycle when you shop will make a huge difference.
Other things we've done so far...
- Removed boxed plastic straws from sale and for use in our customer cafes.
- Stopped selling 5p carrier bags from sale in our stores - This will remove 192m carrier bags per year, which is 1536 tonnes of plastic
- Offering customers the option to refill their water bottles for free in our stores and have installed drinking fountains into our new stores to reduce the amount of plastic water bottles our customers use, we
- Ended our use of plastic wrap on fresh British summer season cucumbers. This will remove 16m sleeves per year, which is 24 tonnes of plastic.
This is just a snapshot of our activity - please keep an eye out for more initiatives.