Supermarket & High Street Retailer Recycling
You can now take back soft plastics to the plastic bag collection points at most major supermarkets for recycling. These soft plastic items include peelable film lids, cereal bags, fruit & veg bags and nets, and food pouches.
For online shopping deliveries, many supermarkets also allow you to hand your unwanted bags back to the driver for recycling.
Supermarkets are constantly changing what recycling they will take so follow the links below to get the latest information for your local supermarket.
Tesco
“Shoppers can now return all their soft plastic packaging to recycling points at every large Tesco store in the UK”
Items can include: Bread bags, Fruit and vegetable packaging, Crisp packets and Salad bags.
Sainsburys
“You can now recycle more flexible plastic bags, pouches and wrapping here. All items should be clean and free of food and sticky labels removed where possible”
Available in all Sainsburys stores.
The Coop
“All Co-op own brand food packaging can be recycled. Limitations may apply to third party packaging. While we will accept soft plastics from any retailer or brand, we cannot guarantee that such third party packaging will be recycled. However, the majority of third party soft plastic will be made from materials which will go to be recycled within our scheme.”
A full list of what Coop can and can’t take is HERE.
“More Information & Find Your Nearest Store” here.
M&S
“Customers can recycle plastic from any product, including those not bought at M&S, by placing them into our Plastic Recycling Units at their nearest stores. M&S will take care of the rest.”
Scheme is available in 100 M&S owned stores.
“More Information & Find Your Nearest Store” here.
Superdrug
Within selected stores, Superdrug can take in a range of items that can be tricky to recycle including:
Beauty Empties: Superdrug have a partnership with Maybelline and TerraCycle, and can now recycle beauty empties from ANY brand. Give them a quick clean and drop them in a collection box. To find the nearest participating store select Makeup Recycling Bins. Please note, they do not currently recycle: Makeup brushes, Nail varnish or Aerosols.
Old Electrical Products: When purchasing any electrical item from Superdrug, they’ll recycle the one you’re replacing, free of charge.
They will also recycle batteries at any Superdrug store.
“More Information & Find Your Nearest Store” here.
Boots
Boots have created a ‘Recycle at Boots scheme’ where you can bring your empty beauty, health, wellness and dental products, from any brand, that can’t be recycled at home.
The scheme is aimed at hard-to-recycle beauty, healthcare and wellness products that cannot be put in the council home recycling. Usually this is because they are:
Too small (travel minis, samples, mascaras, etc)
Made of composite materials (make-up palettes, compacts, lipsticks, etc)
Made from non-recyclable materials (toothpaste tubes, lotion pumps, etc)
They have also provided an incentive so when you visit one of their participating stores and bring five empty products to one of the in-store recycle bins, they’ll give you a total of 500 Boots Advantage Card points when you spend £10 or more. They’ll also track how many empties you bring back so you can see the positive impact you’re making to the planet.
Medical Blister Packs:
Larger Boots stores accept empty medical blister packs for recycling, including those made of mixed plastic and foil. Packs made only of foil can be placed in your kerbside recycling bin.
“More Information & Find Your Nearest Store” here.
Other Supermarkets & Retailers
Lidl, Aldi, Asda, Waitrose and Iceland don’t currently offer recycling instore. However, some Aldi and Waitrose branches do provide collection points for soft plastics. All of these supermarkets also have other initiatives in place, compostable packaging, refill stations, plastic reduction and plastic bottle returns. Click on the hyperlinks for each supermarket to find out more.
Electrical Recycling
Never bin your old electricals or batteries. And don’t put them in your general recycling bin. Everything with a plug, battery or cable must be recycled separately.
Shop Smart
Here are a few more tips for shopping smart and sustainably:
Try to support local growers and food producers reducing food miles, packaging and supports our local economy.
Reducing our waste is better than recycling try to buyloose fruit and veg, take your own containers to buy cheese, fish etc over the counters.
Some shops are now also offering refill services, we’ve found some HERE that are worth looking at. Refilling old containers rather than buying a completely new product can often save money too.
Some more tips on sustainable shopping HERE
If we have missed something out, please help us keep this page up-to-date by emailing marketing@sussexgreenliving.co.uk
Learn about what you can recycle with Sussex Green Living to raise money for charity here.
