Major retailer Marks and Spencer has said that not enough materials are entering the supply chain for it to use more recycled content.
In an article on the Guardian Circular economy hub, M&S Plan A director Mike Barry highlighted how M&S sold over four million clothing and home products featuring recycled PET, and that if you include the recycled PET that goes into food packaging “the number jumps into hundreds of millions”.
However, he added: “M&S is trying to get as much recycled content into food packaging as possible but it’s a postcode lottery when it comes to the recycling services offered to customers.
“As a result not enough of the right materials are coming into the supply chain and the standards and segregation vary enormously.
“M&S has taken action by providing funding and partnering with the Somerset Waste Partnership to deliver high quality recyclate to its suppliers.”
In his article he also said that sustainability professionals can make a difference by thinking of the consumer and making the circular economy be presented to consumers as “smarter, savvier, more aspirational, not wreathed in the language of sustainability”.
He also called for reform of the PRN system, investment in the right infrastructure including “consistent recycling facilities” and “inter-factory agreements on recycling and resource use” as well as use of big data across billions of products.
See the full article at http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainability-professionals-scale-circular-economy#mce_temp_url#
