Ethical spending spikes as Co-op commits to 100 percent recyclable packaging for own-brand products

15 Jan 2020 --- UK retailer Co-op has committed to 100 percent own-brand recyclable packaging and aims to have phased out all non-recyclable plastics by mid-2020. Moreover, the company plans to replace them with reused or easily recycled material. This comes as “ethical spending” topped £41.1 billion (US$53.3 billion) compared to just £11.2 billion (US$14.6 billion) in 1999. This is according to the company’s 20th Ethical Consumerism Report, which is touted as a barometer of UK ethical spending. By leading this UK-wide scheme to recycle plastic film, the company aims to demonstrate to all stakeholders that plastic film recycling systems can create novel markets.

“Innovation is key in finding solutions to problems that affect us all. Once collected, it is our aim that these plastic and film materials will be made into substitutes for plywood panels, which can then potentially be used in the building industry,” Iain Ferguson, Co-op Environment Manager at Co-op, tells PackagingInsights.

“It is important to note that unlike other retailers, Co-op measures the recyclability of its packaging by product line and not weight, as this is easier for the customer to understand and visualize,” Ferguson adds. Currently, over 75 percent of the company’s packaging is easy to recycle by line and that translates into over 95 percent by weight. 

Recycling infrastructure presents an on-going difficulty.Recycling difficulties
The 100 percent target refers to own-brand Co-op products; however, the planned film recycling scheme is an inclusive initiative and the company is keen to accept all clean film from other brands and retailers, Ferguson notes.

Film, such as ready meal lids, yogurt pot lids and chip packets, have long been a challenge for the industry because so few local authorities collect it for recycling. “In fact, in the UK it is only around 14 percent of all councils that collect film. We want to show that it can be done on a wider scale,” he explains.

On a greater scale, Co-op’s analysis of each local UK authority in recycling collection indicates that there are gaps in the UK’s recycling infrastructure. “We feel that there should have been greater investment over the past decade to cater for this. As a single retailer, we can’t solve the UK’s plastic pollution problem on our own. We recognize, as do our members and customers, that we all need to work collectively – that’s government, local authorities, consumers, waste and refuse collections and the recycling infrastructure – to reduce the impact of single-use plastic,” says Ferguson. 

The report’s results
According to the report, the grand total of average ethical spending per UK household in 1999 was £202 (US$262), which pales in comparison to 2018’s average at £1,278 (US$1,662). The ethical food and drink category remains the largest segment of the market with an annual expenditure of £12 billion last year compared with just over £1 billion in 1999.

At present, local councils do not collect plastic film for recycling. Under Co-op’s recycling scheme, however, everything from ready meal trays, crisps packets, to sandwich cartons and film, will be easy to recycle whether via curbside collection or a closed-loop in-house scheme.

“UK businesses and non-profit organizations (NGOs) have pioneered many of these developments. Today, we have multi-billion pound markets that either didn’t exist or if they did, other mainstream businesses were unconvinced of their potential to succeed,” says Jo Whitfield, Co-op Food CEO.

“It has also taken smart government intervention to get us this far. Going forward, ethical consumerism will continue to play a pivotal role in the pursuit of more sustainable products, businesses and markets,” she adds.

Infographic from Co-op's Ethical Consumerism Report.Ethics and environmental sustainability 
Co-op’s commitment to a full-scale recyclable packaging endeavor does not come out of the blue. Co-op has supported Fairtrade for 25 years and boasts many Fairtrade firsts, including selling the first Fairtrade bananas in the UK and being the first supermarket to start selling Fairtrade products in every store.

 Currently, nearly three out of four own-brand Co-op products are already widely recyclable. Thereby, the retailer says it has been able to remove almost 950 metric tons of single-use plastic in the past three years alone. By the end of 2019, it had already removed all black and dark plastic packaging from all of its products, Ferguson explains.

More specifically, Co-op replaced the plastic discs in its pizza boxes with cardboard ones, saving 200 metric tons of polystyrene from destined landfills in 2016. Just last year, the company became the first retailer to replace single-use plastic bags with compostable carrier bags. These can be used in curbside food waste collections in over 1,000 stores, potentially removing 60 million single-use carriers from circulation.

“At the Co-op, it’s less about profitability and more about doing the right thing from an environmental and sustainability point of view. We know that our customers and members are as passionate as we are about reducing the impact of the products we sell. In 2018, they voted overwhelmingly in favor to push through our original motion to make all of our packaging recyclable by 2023 – which we have now brought forward by three years to 2020,” Ferguson concludes. 

By Anni Schleicher