M&S plans 5m investment in kerbside collections

The Local Authority Recycling Partnership scheme, which is part of the retailer’s Plan A environment strategy, has been launched today with Somerset County Council.

M&S will spend £1.25m between now and 2015 to help the council add plastics and cardboard to kerbside collections.

Helene Roberts, M&S head of packaging, said Plan A had already helped to reduce food packaging by 16% and more than 90% of its packaging was recyclable.

“In order to move to the next level, and make more of our packaging with recycled content, we need more materials at a higher quality collected at kerbside and made available to our suppliers.

“We are tackling this problem by providing funding directly to the people that can make a difference – local authorities. The partnerships mean we can get the materials we need to close the recycling loop and deliver a more sustainable future for food packaging,” said Roberts.

Kent Waste Partnership and a further two, as yet unnamed, local authorities will follow later in the year and an M&S spokesman said the investments would be for similar amounts and time frames, bringing the total investment to around £5m.

The spokesman told Packaging News that in the case of Somerset, the M&S funding would help pay for lorries and manpower to boost the kerbside collections. Infrastructure firm May Gurney handles the Somerset waste and both existing and new material is collected through Somerset Waste Partnership’s Sort It Plus system.

The plan is to collect an extra 60,000 tonnes of waste packaging from the four local authorities. Some 15,000 tonnes will be reused by M&S and the rest made available to other packaging producers.

Defra minister Dan Norris said: “Improvements in the management of packaging waste will require all parts of the chain to work collectively. M&S’s investment is a really significant step and I would encourage others to follow this lead.”

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