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Marks & Spencer's high-profile Plan A strategy has moved
into a new phase with the announcement of a pioneering closed-loop
recycling initiative that will see the retailer fund kerbside
collection for recyclable material, which it will use to make
food packaging for use in its stores.
The company said it will invest £1.25m over five years in
a deal with Somerset County Council that will see it part-fund
the kerbside collection of plastics and cardboard. Marks &
Spencer will then use some of the collected recyclable material,
with the excess being sold on to other packaging producers.
The partnership is expected to be followed with three similar
deals later this year, one of which will be Kent. The company
said its investment should help councils collect an additional
60,000 tonnes of recyclable material every year by 2015.
Helene Roberts, head of packaging at Marks & Spencer,
said the innovative partnerships would help the company get
its hands on the recyclable materials it needs.
"In order that we move to the next level, which is making
more of our packaging with recycled content, we need more
materials at a higher quality collected at the kerbside and
made available to our suppliers," she said. "We are tackling
this problem by providing funding directly to the people who
can make a difference - local authorities."
Marks & Spencer has made packaging and waste a central
component of its high-profile Plan
A sustainability strategy and has already cut food
packaging levels 16 per cent since 2007, while more than 90
per cent of its packaging is now classified as recyclable.
The strategy also features commitments to stop sending waste
to landfill from UK and Republic of Ireland operations, reduce
use of packaging and carriers bags and use packaging materials
from sustainable or recycled sources.
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