Morrisons Acquires Stake In Recycling Site

Supermarket giant Morrisons has acquired a significant stake in a new recycling site.

The site in Fife will reprocess 'hard-to-recycle' soft plastics and will enable Morrisons to become the first UK supermarket to own its own recycling operations.

The facility, which is is co-owned and being constructed by recycling plant specialist Yes Recycling, will turn flexible food packaging into plastic flakes, pellets and boards. At current capacity, it will take 15,000 of tonnes of flexible plastic packaging a year. It is set to create about 60 jobs.

Morrisons has also committed that by 2025, it will recycle and reuse the equivalent amount of plastic it puts on to the market within its own recycling facilities, to develop greater recycling in the UK. It has already announced it will reduce its own brand plastic packaging by 50 per cent by the same year.

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."

Omer Kutluoglu, co-owner of Yes Recycling, added: "This is a ground-breaking site which uses new patented plastic recycling technology, which we've developed over the last seven years. It is a blueprint for the future and will help to kick-start the UK's plastics recycling industry. It will mean we can keep plastic in our own country's 'circular economy' and out of our seas and oceans."