United Kingdom supermarket giant Tesco has honored two recycling firms for their work turning waste plastic into grocery bags.
The "Procurement Collaboration of the Year" award went to Eurokey, which collects and sorts waste plastic from Tesco stores, and German recycler Papier-Mettler, which turns that scrap plastic into new bags for Tesco.
The new bags, which were introduced after the UK launched a 5 pence single-use bag charge in England, are part of Papier-Mettler's Ecoloop film.
About 80 percent of the low density polytheylene used in the bags is post-consumer recycled material.
Robin Hughes, Tesco's procurement manager, said: “We are extremely proud to work with these suppliers to turn plastics from our business generated waste into our single use carrier bags. We believe that recycling materials back into products makes sense for the industry and the environment.”
Bill Aldridge, U.K. sales manager of Papier-Mettler, said: “We are delighted to be working with Tesco to achieve optimal solutions regarding green packaging. As a result, Tesco not only offers carrier bags made of post-consumer recycled material, they have now gone one step further.
“By closing the material loop, Tesco carrier bags are now produced using their own plastic waste. An ideal situation for Tesco, Tesco's customers and the environment.
The Tesco bag project has also had the backing of plastics recycling body Recoup.
Stuart Foster, Recoup's chief executive, said the initiative was a “perfect example of how joined up actions between the supply and recycling chain can deliver efficient recycling of plastic resources in a transparent way.
“This is a true plastics recycling success story and an example for others to follow.”