RE: NEWS
Walmart fined for hazardous waste violations
Tesco unveils plans to reduce food waste
Supermarket giant Tesco plans to lead the way in reducing food waste across the globe according to its latest ‘Tesco and Society’ report, which was released at the end of May. In a bid to drive down the amount of food waste produced in Tesco stores, agriculture, the supply chain and by customers, the retailer says it aims to be more transparent about the levels of food waste across its value chain and to ensure that surplus food goes to charitable causes wherever possible. Reducing food waste is just one of the big three corporate responsibility goals Tesco is tackling, alongside improving health to tackle the global obesity crisis and creating new opportunities for young people. To tackle food waste from its stores, Tesco says it is developing a new measurement for the amount of food wasted produced in its operations in order to track progress on waste reduction over time. Tesco said it hopes the data collected from stores and also from its Clubcard scheme will establish the food waste profile of a typical Tesco shop. It intends to publish baseline data on this by the end of the year. The retailer will also conduct customer research on the underlying causes of food waste in the home and says it is looking at improving the way in which date codes are displayed on products. Tesco chief executive Philip Clark states in the report: “Waste not want not is at the heart of every little helps. So it is natural for us to want to take a leading role in preventing the enormous quantities of food going to waste every day around the world.”
US giant Walmart has agreed to pay nearly $82 million after pleading guilty to improperly discarding hazardous wastes such as pesticides and bleach. The retailer admitted violating environmental regulations pleading guilty to six counts of violating the Clean Water Act by illegally handling and disposing of hazardous materials at its retail stores across the US.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency said Walmart did not have a programme in place and failed to train its employees on proper hazardous waste management and disposal practices at a store level.
Waitrose to halve packaging by 2016
Supermarket chain Waitrose has pledged to halve its packaging by 2016 against a 2005 baseline which will see three major changes to its products introduced to help it achieve this ambitious target. The “Menu from Waitrose” range of prepared meals has been re-launched with a full
redesign and packaging update for all of the 49 products. The width of the sleeves on the outside of the products has been decreased, resulting in a reduction of 33 tonnes of packaging per year - equivalent to a 20% overall weight saving. It is also the first time that a retailer has introduced aluminium trays, lacquered both internally and externally, which means customers can cook and serve the meals in the same tray and are still able to recycle it after use. The Good to Go range of 190 snacks and sandwiches has also been re-launched, with packaging reductions totalling 25 tonnes per year. Changes include increasing the size of the clear window on sandwiches to allow better visibility of the product, cutting 11 tonnes of packaging per year. Pre-printed bags for fruit portions were also developed, saving 60% of the weight by taking off the label.
The packaging target is one of 12 CSR pledges launched in the Waitrose Way commitment which was published on May 2. The commitments include: reducing its carbon footprint; ensuring all fish is independently certified as sustainable by 2016; giving more than £10 million to charitable causes; and, improving the quality of care for animals. Waitrose’s head of sustainability and ethical
sourcing, Quentin Clark, said: “As a nation we’re getting busier, and lack of time means we need to be able to trust the retailer we are using. So when creating these pledges we made sure the emphasis was on how we we’re being part of the solution, now and in the future - we want it to be really easy for our customers to know we’re doing the right thing.”
JUNE 2013 | RETAIL ENVIRONMENT 13
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