Retail chain Sainsbury’s plc has become the ‘first supermarket’ to offer its customers an in-store Easter egg packaging recycling programme.

The ‘specially designed’ Easter recycling facilities (at 50 of the chain’s 1,106 stores) allow customers to recycle all elements of Easter egg packaging, including those not widely accepted at kerbside collection schemes, such as rigid plastic and plastic film.

Other streams accepted at the recycling points are card, foil, and ribbon.

The scheme has been launched following the ‘success’ of the supermarket’s Christmas card recycling scheme, which last year saw 1.2 million cards recycled, with all proceeds from the recycled material going to the Forest Stewardship Council UK.

Speaking of the new Easter egg packaging recycling facilities, Sainsbury’s Head of Sustainability, Engineering, Energy & Environment Paul Crewe said: “We’re proud to be the first to offer this cracking recycling facility to our customers and colleagues. Recycling is an important part of Sainsbury’s environmental commitment, which we’re taking further than ever – sending zero operational waste to landfill and putting our minds to new and engaging schemes to help even more customers and colleagues recycle.”

Rachel Gray, Behaviour Change Manager at the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), also welcomed the scheme, adding: “We are delighted that Sainsbury’s are working with their customers to help them find ways to recycle Easter egg packaging during the holidays. Such a wide range of Easter Egg packaging can be recycled, from the foil that your chocolate egg comes in to your Easter egg box. To find out what can be recycled where you live visit www.recyclenow.com.’

Waste awareness Wales offers Easter waste reduction tips

In another effort to reduce the amount of waste created during the Easter period, waste prevention body Recycle For Wales has released a range of tips householders can follow to make better use of resources. These include:

• choosing Easter eggs with the least amount of packaging;
• recycling cardboard from Easter egg packaging;
• making rather than buy Easter food treats;
• using leftovers from Easter meals for other meals (such as using leftover hot cross buns to make bread and butter pudding); and
• ensuring all non-salvageable food waste goes into food waste bins.

Andrew Osborne from Recycle for Wales said: “We’d never dare to deny the chocoholics in Wales another excuse to indulge; however, we would like to ask people to think about [the] amount of waste that the shop-bought eggs create and try to buy eggs with the least amount of packaging. Try and recycle any plastic and cardboard packaging to avoid it ending up in landfill. Also, don’t forget your waste collection days will change due to the bank holiday.

“Please check with your council. We want residents to work egg-stra hard on recycling their Easter Bank Holiday waste on the correct days!”

Find out more about what you can recycle in Wales.