We are committed to the principles of sustainable waste management: reduce, reuse and recycle. In July 2005 we signed the Courtauld Commitment, an initiative sponsored by Government with the objective of helping to reduce the growth in household waste.

Over the last four years we have increased the amount of store waste we recycle from 55% to 71%, saving 9,000 tonnes of waste from landfill.

To reduce waste we are:

• Reducing the packaging we use in our operations and the amount of packaging our customers take home
• Increasing the amount we recycle in our operations and making it easier for customers to recycle
• Using more recycled materials
• Finding clean ways to generate energy from food waste

LANDFILL WASTE - tonnes/square ft

Reducing packaging In 2000, Tesco pioneered the use of reusable plastic crates – our award-winning green trays – to replace cardboard boxes and other packaging used to transport and display products. Green trays have subsequently been adopted widely in our international supply chain. As well as being reusable and recyclable, they help protect products, minimising damage.

We now use green trays so widely in our business and are increasing use of trays which hold double the capacity. This means that it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve year-on-year increases in the number of tray trips. In 2005/06, we therefore missed our target to increase the number of green tray trips by 10%. Having maximised our use of green trays we are now concentrating on other packaging reduction projects such as merchandising units and reducing the weight of packaging we use. Four such initiatives for spirit bottles, drink bottles, pizza and potato packaging have saved 11,000 tonnes a year. Our Packaging Strategy Group is looking at ways to further reduce the impact of our packaging.

Recycling in our operations We have an internal programme for recycling paper, cardboard and plastic. In 2005/06 we increased the proportion of store waste recycled from 65% to 71%, saving a total of 384,517 tonnes of waste from landfill. In 2006/07 we aim to recycle 72% of waste as part of our three-year commitment to recycle 80% of our waste.

Recycling by customers Recycling is a key issue for our customers, with nine out of ten people saying they would recycle more if it were easier to do so. We want to be first for recycling and encourage customers to double the amount they bring to our stores to recycle. This additional material would account for around 10% of the total additional tonnage needed to meet the UK’s EU packaging recycling targets by 2008.

We also make it easier for our customers to recycle mobile phones, inkjet cartridges, Christmas cards and clothing.

In January 2006 we once again worked with The Woodland Trust to recycle Christmas Cards. We ran television adverts encouraging customers to return their cards to stores and collected over 59 million cards or 117 tonnes – 27 million cards or 548 tonnes more than last year.

Our mobile phone recycling scheme is the most successful of its kind in Europe, recycling 720,000 handsets, saving over 144 tonnes of harmful electronic waste going to landfill, giving customers 163 million Clubcard points and raising £1.7 million for charity over the last three years. This year we are also planting a tree in Ghana for each mobile returned, in partnership with Tree Aid.

In 2003 we launched our inkjet recycling scheme. Since then we have collected 266,570 inkjet cartridges and given customers 9,639,400 million Clubcard points and raised £155,900 for charity.

Recycling electrical equipment The EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive aims to encourage the recycling of old electrical and electronic equipment such as televisions and washing machines to prevent them being disposed of in landfills. We are working with the British Retail Consortium so that there will be a network of accessible facilities in place for customers to return old electrical equipment when the Directive is implemented by the UK Government.

Using recycled materials It makes sense to use recycled materials wherever possible. We have increased our range of products containing recycled materials and customers are choosing to buy more of these products than ever before. For example, we currently offer customers a choice of toilet rolls containing 100% recycled postconsumer waste (our Value range), 30% recycled post consumerwaste, or virgin pulp from sustainable sources. We label the recycled content clearly on our packaging. From Summer 2006 all paper used in our offices, distribution and stores will be 80% recycled and in 2006/07 we plan to build the first ever supermarket entirely from recyclable and recycled materials.

Generating energy from food waste To prevent food waste from going to landfill, we are testing aerobic digestion and gasification. We have reviewed a number of potential sites to see whether they would be suitable for housing a gasification unit which turns food waste into energy, and we aim to install our first unit in 2006.

We are creating shelf-ready packaging for 2 litre bottles, so that they arrive from the supplier on pallets which go directly onto shelves, This initiative saved 10,000 tonnes packaging.

 

 

 

 

 

Reducing the weight of cardboard we use for a range of our fresh pizzas by over 60% has enabled us to save over 747 tonnes of cardboard a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our range of bin bags is made from 95% recycled plastic, and we have introduced a degradable range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our stores have carrier bag recycling units throughout January.

 

 

 

 

 

Last year we sold 80 million rolls of Value toilet paper made with 100% recycled pulp saving 1,800 tonnes of virgin paper.