It has been announced this week that Hotel Chocolat, the only company in the UK to grow cocoa on its own plantation, is to encourage customers to bring plastic back into its stores so that it can be recycled.
Shoppers can now bring back any clean plastic packaging into one of its 103 stores across the UK.
The scheme also includes packaging from any product or retailer.
Hotel Chocolat has stated that it is pushing the scheme in an effort to become more environmentally friendly and has pledged to make its packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2021.
The company has already introduced packaging made from sugar cane that is sustainable, biodegradable, and compostable.
Angus Thirlwell, Hotel Chocolat’s CEO and co-founder said that: “We are now doubling our efforts to accelerate the rest of our sustainability programme.”
In other news, Tesco has introduced a new king of technology that allows the supermarket to recycle all forms of plastic,
As part of a trial, 10 stores in the Bristol and Swindon areas are recycling with specialist technologies that will allow customers to return hard-to-recycle plastics.
This includes shopping bags, crisp packets, and pet food pouches, which can’t currently be recycled by councils.
Currently, 83% of its packaging is currently recyclable, but is aiming to make all of it recyclable by 2025.
The company stated last week that it would remove plastic-wrapped fruits and vegetables as part of a separate trial.
Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s director of quality, said: “Reducing and recycling plastics is such an important issue for us, for customers and for the future of our planet. Our trial with Recycling Technologies will make even more of our packaging recyclable and help us reach our target.”
She continued, saying that: “This technology could be the final piece of the jigsaw for the UK plastic recycling industry.”
