UK supermarket to run Easter egg packaging recycling scheme

The specially designed Easter recycling facility allows customers to recycle all elements of Easter egg packaging – including plastic, film, card, foil and ribbon - and taking in materials, like rigid plastic, which not all local kerbside collections accept.

Sainsbury’s said it is the first supermarket to offer such a service. The scheme follows the success of Sainsbury’s Christmas card recycling scheme, where 1.2m Christmas cards were recycled by its customers last year. All proceeds from the recycled material go to the Forest Stewardship Council UK, which works to manage and protect the world’s forests.

Paul Crewe, Sainsbury’s head of sustainability, engineering, energy and environment, said: ‘We are proud to be the first to offer this cracking recycling facility to our customers and colleagues.

‘Recycling is an important part of Sainsbury’s environmental commitment which we’re taking further than ever - sending zero operational waste to landfill and putting our minds to new and engaging schemes to help even more customers and colleagues recycle.’

Easter egg packaging has been a contentious issue in the UK for a number of years, including the volume used to pack and protect chocolate eggs, and its subsequent disposal.

Rachel Gray, behaviour change manager at WRAP, a UK organization established to promote recycling and help create a market for recycled materials, said: ‘We are delighted that Sainsbury’s is working with its customers to help them find ways to recycle Easter egg packaging during the holidays.

‘Such a wide range of Easter Egg packaging can be recycled, from the foil that your chocolate egg comes in to your Easter egg box.’