Tesco introduces the first recycled food grade soft plastic packaging from materials returned by customers

Tesco is introducing new plastic packaging made by a pioneering process of recycling soft, flexible plastic packaging. This trial demonstrates for the first time that soft plastic can be continuously recycled into safe food-grade packaging. Cheese in packaging from this trial will be on sale in Tesco stores this week.

An entire supply chain has worked together to recycle soft plastic collected from Tesco customers into new food-grade packaging. Plastic Energy, SABIC, Sealed Air and Bradburys Cheese partnered with Tesco to conduct this trial to prove that soft plastic, that would typically go to waste, can be recycled multiple times into new food grade plastic as a part of a closed loop recycling system.

Retailers use soft plastics to pack foods such as bread, pre-prepared salads, meat and cheese as it helps to maintain freshness and prevent food waste. According to the 2019 UK Household Plastic Collection Survey, the UK uses almost 400,000 tonnes of soft plastics every year, but just under 21,000 tonnes of that is collected*1 and this is recycled into non-food grade material. Recycling collection points for soft plastics were introduced into ten Tesco stores in the south west of England in 2019 to discover ways to help address this problem and create a closed loop system.

To prove the closed loop concept, soft plastic material collected from Tesco customers was sent to Plastic Energy who converted the used packaging into oil, through an advanced recycling process called pyrolysis. This recycled oil was used by SABIC in their production process as an alternative to traditional fossil materials to make new plastic pellets that are just as safe and effective as virgin plastic. The pellets were used by Sealed Air who developed one of their existing plastic packaging designs to use this material while still meeting all the performance requirements of Tesco’s cheese supplier, Bradburys.

Seven different cheeses packed at Bradburys using this flexible plastic are now being stocked in Tesco’s stores. The packaging will contain a minimum of 30% recycled material from this new recycling process.

This work comes as a part of Tesco’s 4R Remove, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle programme and an ambition to ensure that all its packaging can be recycled as a part of a closed loop:

James Bull, Head of Packaging at Tesco said, “We are removing all excessive and non-recyclable packaging from our business and will ensure everything that remains can be recycled as a part of a closed loop. This exciting new partnership has the potential to show that every piece of plastic we use can be recycled. If we can roll out this approach at scale throughout our industry it could be of enormous benefit to our planet.”

Peter Maddox, Director of WRAP UK, said: “This is a very exciting development in the challenging journey towards making flexible plastic packaging recyclable and circular. Tesco, a founding member of The UK Plastics Pact, has demonstrated that by taking an innovative and collaborative approach, new solutions can be found to take plastics from in-store collection points to a food-grade packaging format. The next challenge will be to test how scalable it is, and I look forward to seeing how the project progresses.”
Including recycled material in food grade soft plastic packaging has been a challenge for the industry up until this point due to the limitations of traditional recycling techniques. This advanced pyrolysis recycling process overcomes this issue.

In the UK only 16% of local authorities actively collect soft plastic*1, yet soft plastic packaging makes up 26%*2 of all plastic packaging in the country. The amount of local authorities collecting soft plastic has declined for the third consecutive year*1. If innovative approaches to soft plastic recycling are taken and the UK begins to build a consistent recycling infrastructure, thousands of tonnes of soft plastic could be diverted from landfill every year.