Sainsbury’s to roll out reverse vending recycling scheme to collect plastic bottles and aluminium cans

The supermarket giant Sainsbury’s at its Braehead store in Glasgow is reportedly carrying out trials for its reverse vending recycling scheme, which allows customers to deposit plastic bottles of any size up to 3 litres and aluminium drink cans in a machine in exchange for a coupon worth £5 per item towards their shopping.

With the beginning of this initiative, Sainsbury’s store in Glasgow will be the third in the UK to offer this service. Last month, two stores in Lincoln and Hull began offering the same service. Customers can deposit up to a total of 500 plastic bottles and aluminium drink cans per visit, which means they can save up to £25 on shopping.

In this regard, Judith Batchelar, director of Sainsbury’s Brand, said: "We're delighted to offer a new way to help our customers recycle while saving on their shop."

The idea of this scheme came after the Scottish Government revealed plans to add a refundable deposit of £20 to the cost of cans, plastic drinks containers and glass bottles in Scotland.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said this initiative would continue for two years, making Scotland the first part of the UK to introduce such a measure.

This initiative is expected to lead to an extra 140,000 empty cans and bottles being recycled every day.

However, WWF Scotland director Lang Banks warned such moves were only “half the battle”.

He said, “We urgently need to see steps by manufacturers and retailers to reduce the total amount of single-use plastic and packaging produced in the first place.”

Sainsbury’s recently announced that it would remove plastic bags for loose fruit, vegetables, and bakery items from all stores, as a small step towards saving the environment.