Supermarkets & Paper Production - February & March 2016 Recycling News

Recycling news hasn’t slowed down over the past 2 months, despite the yearly recycling statistics having already been announced by large UK companies. February and March saw the supermarket giants shaking things up with announcements of their own.

Buy-One-Get-None-Free

Fans of 2-for-1 might want to avoid Sainsbury’s as the chain plans to scrap its multi-buy promotions by August 2016. With the growing concerns of  health, multi-buy promotions are quickly falling out of step with what people want. New research from WRAP shows that we generate 4.2 million tonnes of avoidable food waste each year; we’re buying more than we eat. This is the driving force behind Sainsbury’s plan, forcing people to think about that they’re purchasing and if they really need it.

Food for Thought

Tesco have taken a different approach to the growing concerns of food waste and have announced plans to incorporate a food redistribution campaign across the country. By the end of 2017, all Tesco stores will be working with the charity FareShare to locate local Charites seeking food. Charities will be supplied with food that cannot be sold in-store, such as items that have passed their display day, to be given to those in need. The decision to put this in place throughout the UK came after a successful pilot, which took place over 6 months and 14 stores, helped supply over 22 tonnes of food to people in need.

Looking Back on 1986

In February, it was revealed that paper production is at its lowest for the last 30 years! With 3.94 million tonnes produced in 1986 and 3.97 million produced in 2015, we’re only 3 million tonnes from being back in 1986 in terms of our paper production! It’s likely this drop in paper production came from the increasing popularity of electronic newspapers and magazines, with printing companies producing 28.7% fewer newspapers alone. The good news doesn’t stop there, we actually have too much recovered paper and cardboard, with collection of cardboard alone having risen by 9% to 4.14 million. The excess waste is being sent all over the globe with 4.9 million tonnes being exported to a range of countries including India, France, Germany, and China.