Tesco to double recycling rates

The machines automatically sort through plastic, metal and glass at a rate of 80 products/min. Trials at six stores in the southeast found recycling increased by 50 per cent within two months.

The units talk customers through the recycling process, providing visual cues on colour touchscreens.

Customers drop waste into the unit, which is then identified by a high-resolution camera, circulated on a conveyor system and then sorted into container bins.

Plastic and aluminium are shredded by revolving high-speed knives moving at over 60km/hr. All rigid plastics are accepted, with PET and HDPE specifically segregated. Clear glass is segregated from mixed and then crushed by revolving arms throwing bottles at an in-built stone wall.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We try to educate customers on what the machines can accept. There is a ‘general’ bin for those items that the machine cannot recognise and that is emptied and taken to an MRF, where any materials that cannot be recycled are separated.”

The technology has been developed by Tesco in conjunction with Norwegian recycling technology company Tomra. Roll-out of machines begins later this year. Tesco is confident the speaking centres will double the amount of recycling at those 100 selected stores.

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