Supermarket chain Aldi is at the heart of a new collaboration formed to make plastic recycling more transparent.
Greenback Recycling Technologies, the Flexible Plastics Fund (FPF), and Aldi UK are working together with the aim of providing full visibility on the journey of flexible plastic packaging collected from consumers in retail stores, right through the recycling journey to end product.
FPF supports supermarkets and independently tracks and verifies the flow of the plastic recycling process using Greenback’s artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain-powered evidence system, eco2Veritas.
The eco2Veritas tool tracks and certifies the amount of flexible plastic collected, shows how much of it is sorted and into which polymers. It can also show how much is reprocessed and into what end products. By having plastic recycling tracked and certified as recycled by eco2Veritas, Aldi can receive further funding from the FPF which helps support dealing with this hard-to-recycle material.
Last week, Aldi received its first certificate generated by eco2Veritas, which confirmed 62 tonnes of in-scope Polyethylene (PE) and 25 tonnes of in-scope Polypropylene (PP) were recycled. The material was collected over a number of months in 2023 via dedicated bins positioned in its stores.
Additional volumes are expected to undergo certification in the weeks ahead.
The move comes after several investigations into where recycling ends up have shown that some plastic waste collected from UK in-store collections ends up being exported abroad or dumped. Such revelations, including a Greenpeace report in 2021, can damage consumer trust in the systems.
Waitrose launched an in-store plastic recycling scheme in 2023, specifically choosing to work with a UK-based waste management company in an effort to avoid the waste being sent abroad.
Luke Emery, plastic & packaging director at Aldi UK, said: “We are committed to tackling plastic waste.
“We know this is an issue that matters to our customers too, which is why we’re working with the FPF to further improve the recycling of flexible plastics collected in our stores.”
Anthony Meadows, chief digital officer at Greenback commented: “This collaboration is an important first step in making hard-to-recycle plastics circular in the UK. We developed eco2Veritas to incentivise recycling and to bring trust and transparency to drive circular economy.”
Aldi said it currently collects around 300 tonnes of post-consumer flexible plastic packaging per year. The material it collects is taken to plastics recycler Jayplas until there is enough material to sort into two main polymers (PE and PP), at which point this material is pelletised and the PE is used to make refuse sacks, whilst the PP is used to make crates and trays.
Gareth Morton, FPF project lead at compliance company Ecosurety, said: “I’d like to congratulate everyone involved at Aldi, Greenback, and Jayplas for their dedication and hard work in making this exciting initiative happen.
“It’s been a while in the making – from exploring options and building trust with the industry, to developing the eco2Veritas certification platform which tracks everything and gives everyone confidence in the process and outcomes.”
[Image credit: Green Retail World]
