Morrisons has unveiled plans to pilot six zero waste stores.
The shops will aim to recycle all packaging and unsold food by 2025 and will feature special recycling points for customers to deposit products such as wrappers, empty crisp packets and face masks.
If the pilot in six stores in Edinburgh is a success, the format will be extended to all 498 Morrisons UK supermarkets over the next year.
The supermarket is running the trial in partnership with Nestle which will be helping the retailer to recycle soft plastics in the UK instead of sending them overseas for reprocessing.
Store waste such as soft and hard plastics, cardboard, food waste, green waste, PPE, tins, cans and foils will be sorted by staff in storage rooms while some unsold food will be sold at a big discount through Morrisons Too Good To Go app. In addition, more surplus food will be , donated to people in need in local communities.
Jamie Winter, sustainability procurement director at Morrisons, said: “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 and 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.”
