Morrisons has announced that its new investment in a Scottish recycling plant will help the company meet its goal of recycling and reusing the equivalent amount of plastic it puts onto the market.

According to the company, the Fife site is “the first of its type in the world.” At current capacity, the site will take 15,000 of tonnes of flexible plastic packaging a year. The new site is also set to create around 60 new jobs.

The Fife recycling plant, which reprocess ‘hard-to-recycle’ soft plastics, will take all low-grade plastics including sweet wrappers, crisp packets, salad bags and non-PET food film. When these materials enter the site, all plastic material is washed and sorted. It is then broken down and turned into flakes and pellets which can be used to make new plastic products in a ‘closed loop’. Other pellets are compressed into Ecosheets which can be recycled again at the end of their life.

Morrisons said it has a target of reducing its own brand plastic packaging by 50% and making all own brand plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.

“Very encouraging”

Helen Bird, strategic technical manager in plastics at WRAP, said: “It’s very encouraging to hear of the investment made by UK Plastics Pact member Morrisons in the Yes Recycling plastic bags and wrapping recycling facility. While we need to reduce unnecessary plastic, when it comes to recycling we need to make it as simple for people as possible.”

She continued: “Packaging design needs to be improved and we need to get collection services rolled out across the nation – from people’s homes in the future and from supermarkets in the interim. But ensuring the material is actually remanufactured into new products or packaging is key – that is after all the whole point of recycling.”