Iceland has launched a new plastic bag collection service for its Food Warehouse customers as part of its home deliveries.
Home delivery drivers from the supermarket will carry purpose-made liners in their vans to store all old plastic bags given to them from customers. The drivers will then return the bags to The Food Warehouse stores where they will then be returned to the depot with stores daily deliveries.
More than 1.1 billion single use plastic bags were sold in the UK from 2018 to 2019 with many being disposed of incorrectly. The new service will also provide added convenience for customers across the country that no longer want their old bags but have no effective way of properly disposing of them at home.
Currently, flexible plastics are not commonly collected or recycled and typically end up in general household waste with only 17% of councils currently collecting this material for recycling.
Richard Walker, Managing Director of Iceland and The Food Warehouse, said: [Reducing the production of plastic remains an absolute priority for Iceland but we are also aware that so much of the plastic that is already out there ends up in landfill. We are tackling plastic pollution by providing a solution that ensures old, unused plastic bags are reliably recycled and contributing to the circular economy rather than leaking into the environment.
[The new collection service will be rolled out nationally and help our customers dispose of their plastic bags in a responsible way while also providing added convenience and additional space under the kitchen sink where the majority of plastic bags lurk."
The initiative follows the fitting of plastic recycling bins in all The Food Warehouse stores to help its customers recycle plastic film they are not able to at home. The new bins, which will be located at the front of each store, allow customers to recycle flexible plastic film items including carrier bags, bread bags, produce bags and magazine wraps.