First produce in food-grade recycled flexible packaging hits Tesco shelves

A pioneering recycling project for soft and flexible plastics has resulted in the first food items on sale in a new packaging using these materials in Tesco this week.

Following a trial involving an entire supply chain, soft plastic collected from Tesco customers in the UK is being used to produce new food-safe packaging, with cheese being the first product utilising the material.

Plastic Energy, SABIC, Sealed Air and Bradburys Cheese partnered with Tesco to conduct this trial to prove that soft plastic, that would typically go to waste, can be recycled multiple times into new food grade plastic as a part of a closed loop recycling system.

Recycling collection points for soft plastics were introduced into ten Tesco stores in the south west of England in 2019 to discover ways to help address the limitations around the recycling of flexibles and create a closed loop system.

To prove the closed loop concept, soft plastic material collected from Tesco customers was sent to Plastic Energy who converted the used packaging into oil, through its advanced recycling process, called pyrolysis.

This recycled oil was used by SABIC in its production process as an alternative to traditional fossil materials to make new plastic pellets that are as safe and effective as virgin plastic. 

The pellets were used by Sealed Air who developed one of its existing plastic packaging designs to use this material, while still meeting all the performance requirements of Tesco’s cheese supplier, Bradburys.

Seven different cheeses packed at Bradburys using this flexible plastic are now being stocked in Tesco’s stores. The packaging will contain a minimum of 30 per cent recycled material from this new recycling process.

This work comes as a part of Tesco’s 4R Remove, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle programme and an ambition to ensure that all its packaging can be recycled as a part of a closed loop.

James Bull, Head of Packaging at Tesco commented: “We are removing all excessive and non-recyclable packaging from our business and will ensure everything that remains can be recycled as a part of a closed loop.

“This exciting new partnership has the potential to show that every piece of plastic we use can be recycled. If we can roll out this approach at scale throughout our industry it could be of enormous benefit to our planet.”  

Peter Maddox, Director of WRAP UK, said: “This is a very exciting development in the challenging journey towards making flexible plastic packaging recyclable and circular.

“Tesco, a founding member of The UK Plastics Pact, has demonstrated that by taking an innovative and collaborative approach, new solutions can be found to take plastics from in-store collection points to a food-grade packaging format. The next challenge will be to test how scalable it is, and I look forward to seeing how the project progresses.”

Including recycled material in food grade soft plastic packaging has been a challenge for the industry up until this point due to the limitations of traditional recycling techniques. This advanced pyrolysis recycling process overcomes this issue.