Morrisons announces ‘zero waste’ stores trial
The trial, in partnership with Nestlé, will see six stores in Edinburgh operate under zero waste which, if successful, will be rolled out to all of Morrisons 498 stores over the next year
Morrisons has announced the trial launch of the UK’s first six ‘zero waste’ stores in Edinburgh, which will have the ability to operate with zero waste by 2025.
If successful, Morrisons will aim to roll out the ‘zero waste’ store format to all it’s 498 stores across the UK over the next year.
The company also said it “aims to recycle all of the waste it creates across all its stores by 2025”.
The trial is in partnership with Nestlé, and will aim to collect and recycle all ‘hard-to-recycle’ soft plastics. All waste collected in Morrisons stores will be recycled in the UK to “avoid the need to export materials to be processed overseas”.
Additionally, unsold food in the stores will be offered to customers on a budget through it’s Too Good to Go app and its ‘Magic Bags’.
Jamie Winter, sustainability procurement director at Morrisons, said: “We’re not going to reach our ambitious targets through incremental improvements alone. We believe that we can, at a stroke, enable these trial stores to move from recycling around 27% of their general waste to over 84% and with a clear line of sight to 100%.
“All waste collected in our stores will be recycled here in the UK – we will not reprocess anything abroad. If we’re successful, we’ll roll this zero waste store concept out across the UK as fast as we can.”
Alison Bramfitt, group packaging manager at Nestlé UK and Ireland, said: “At Nestlé, we’re dedicated to driving a more circular system by reducing our use of virgin plastics by one third, and ensuring all of our packaging is reusable or recyclable by 2025. We are committed to providing solutions for recycling hard-to-recycle.”
