The UK’s leading supermarkets are failing in their attempts to make packaging more recyclable, a new report by the Local Government Association has revealed.
The LGA warned that retailers still have “a lot further to go” if Britain is to hit recycling targets and “avoid landfill tax and EU fines” after its report found that up to 38 per cent of supermarkets grocery packaging cannot be recycled – just two per cent better than last October.
Marks and Spencer and Lidl were found to be the main culprits, with both having the lowest level of packaging in the retail sector that can be recycled, at 62 per cent, against an industry average of 68 per cent.
The two grocery retailers were again highlighted as the worst offenders when it came to total volume of packaging used, with a typical basket of groceries from Lidl using 813g, up from 799.5g last year, followed by M&S at 807g.
The LGA’s findings were based on analysis of packaging used for a basket of 29 common grocery items bought from Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Morrisons, M&S, Lidl, a local retailer and a market .
The local market was the best performer, with a basket of groceries weighing just 617g in packaging, 76 per cent of which was recyclable. Next best was the local retailer, with 74 per cent recyclable packaging .
Sainsbury’s was the supermarket with the highest proportion of recyclable packaging, at 70 per cent, followed by Asda at 69 per cent – which also had lowest level of packaging in weight, at 646g, out of the supermarkets – Morrisons at 67 per cent and Tesco at 65 per cent.
Commenting on the findings, LGA environment board chairman Paul Bettison said: “Reducing packaging is vital if we are to avoid paying more landfill tax and EU fines, which could lead to cuts in frontline services and increases in council tax,” he stressed.
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