THE WHAT? UK supermarket Morrisons has acquired a significant stake in a new recycling site in Fife, which will reprocess ‘hard-to-recycle’ soft plastics. 

THE DETAILS The purchase will make Morrisons the first UK supermarket to own its own recycling operations, which is co-owned by recycling plant specialists Yes Recycling. 

The plant will turn hard-to-recycle flexible food packaging into plastic flakes, pellets and boards. According to a press release, at current capacity, the site will take 15,000 tonnes of flexible packaging a year. 

The site is said to create around 60 new jobs. 

THE WHY? Falling in line with the UK’s ‘green industrial revolution’, the move will help the company recycle and reuse the equivalent amount of plastic it puts on to the market within its own recycling facilities by 2025. 

Jamie Winter, Procurement Director at Morrisons, said, “Lots of work has been done by retailers to reduce plastic, but little to recycle what remains. We’re taking on that challenge and making a significant investment in a state-of-the-art soft plastic recycling site. It’ll take problematic plastics, recycle them here in the UK, and give them a new life. And by 2025 we want to increase our capability to be able to recycle and reuse the equivalent amount of plastic we put out on to the market within our own facilities.”