Walkers is set to launch a crisp bag recycling initiative after Royal Mail continually had to ask environmental campaigners to stop sending used packets back to the company. The scheme will encourage shoppers to drop the packaging at one of the hundreds of public collection sites throughout the UK, or to post them to TerraCycle for recycling.
Once collected that packets will be cleaned, shredded and made into plastic pellets to be useful in making plastic items including benches and fence posts. While Walkers said the crisp packets technically are recyclable, “the issue until now has been that they weren’t being separated or collected for recycling. Walkers’ investment is making this possible for the first time.”
Ian Ellington, general manager at PepsiCo, Walker’s owner said the company shared “people’s concerns about the amount of plastic in our environment and are working on a number of both short and long-term solutions to reduce the impact of our packaging.”
“Our new Walkers recycling initiative starts to tackle this issue right now by repurposing used crisp packets to create everyday items such as plant pots and benches. We hope people will embrace this idea and join us in ensuring crisp packets are recycled.”
TerraCycle Europe hopes this initiative will encourage other manufacturers to follow suit and invest in initiatives that will reduce the amount of packaging that ends up in landfill.
