ntroducing Lightweight compostable carrier bags, which can be used to carry shopping home and then be re-used as food waste caddy liners, at around 400 stores.This is the first time a large-scale food retailer has given shoppers over such a wide area the option of alternative carrier bags with a specific second use.
The bags have been a success when trialled in parts of the UK, and so from today (15 January 2014) they will be available in a further 399 stores, covering 81 local authority areas with food recycling schemes which require householders to use compostable bags for food waste.
Customers will be charged 6p per bag, working out at roughly half the price of food waste caddy liners bought on a roll.
The new bags, together with their food waste contents, can be turned into compost, which in turn can be used to grow fruit and vegetables in a looped environmental cycle.
Iain Ferguson, The Co-operative Food’s environment manager, said: “Every compostable carrier bag used is one less conventional plastic shopping bag in circulation. We believe they will have a significant impact upon the number of plastic bags which end up in landfill sites every year.”
Conventional bags can take decades to break down naturally, and more than eight billion “single-use“, non-compostable, plastic bags are currently distributed by retailers across the United Kingdom each year.
Last year The Co-operative Food used 64% fewer bags in its stores than in 2006, when industry-wide reduction targets were first set.
The retailer is hopes the new compostable carrier bags could play a role in encouraging more people to recycle food waste.
Ferguson added: “Our aim is to enable our customers to recycle more of the products they buy from us – from the leftover food and packaging, right through to the bag they use to carry their shopping home.”
