waste
We're working to reduce, reuse and recycle.
The UK produces 70 million tonnes of Industrial and Commercial waste every year. The Co-operative Group’s approach to waste management focuses on:
- waste reduction – both internally and in terms of packaging passed on to customers
- increasing re-use and recycling rates
- improving the degradability and biodegradability of waste
- the provision of finance to more sustainable waste management options.
As part of our new revolutionary Ethical Operating Plan:
• We will ensure that the vast majority of our operational waste is diverted away from landfill by 2013, and will expand our work with Fareshare on food waste, and on top of the 15% weight reductions achieved in packaging, we will reduce the environmental impact by a further 10% by 2012 and increase our carrier bag reduction target to 75% by 2013.
Find out more - Join the Revolution.
reducing
We were proud to become the first retailer to run a successful packaging waste minimisation project with the Government’s Waste Resources Action Programme, whereby our own-brand tomato puree packaging was redesigned to save 8.5 tonnes of card per annum. Other packaging reduction initiatives include:
• the development of the UK’s lightest 70cl spirits bottle, saving 20 tonnes of glass per annum, which was the winner of the Sustainable Pack Award at the UK Packaging Awards 2007
• the reduction in weight of 26 own-brand wine bottles, projected to save 445 tonnes of glass per annum
• the reduction in weight of a selection of plastic milk bottles, projected to save 22 tonnes of plastic per annum
• ‘naked cucumbers’ which are expected to save eight tonnes of shrink wrap per annum.
reusing
We are committed to developing reusable packaging options, such as our plastic food transportation crates, which saved 5,422 tonnes of cardboard in 2009 alone. We also introduced the world’s first Fairtrade cotton carrier bag, and, where possible, ensure that IT equipment that we no longer need is reused, for example, by donating it to charities.
The Co-operative Bank’s customer-led Ethical Policy includes a commitment to support businesses involved in recycling and sustainable waste management. Find out more about our Ethical Policies.
recycling
In 2009, we recycled or reused more than 72,000 tonnes of our waste. The majority of this was card and plastic waste from The Co-operative Food. Over 786 tonnes of The Group’s waste was dealt with by our own recycling centre in Manchester – the largest in-house recycling centre in the UK. This included our head office paper which is recycled into own-brand toilet tissue and kitchen towel sold in The Co-operative Food stores. Read about our inhouse recycling centre.
Technology is always changing, which is why we run the most widely available customer mobile phone recycling scheme in the UK. Our customers have already raised more than £350,000 for Oxfam by recycling their unwanted mobile phones and inkjet cartridges. Find out more about our mobile phone recycling scheme.
We report on our ecological performance in our annual Sustainability Report. Read about ecological sustainability in our latest Sustainability Report.