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DCL
If you've ever been to England, you probably noticed how ubiquitous the Marks & Spencer chain is. So their adoption of an innovative recycling program is a pretty exciting piece of news: it's a closed-loop recycling initiative in which the store will fund curbside collection, and then use those recyclables for food packaging.
The company, which laid out a sustainability strategy several years ago and has already cut food packaging by 16 percent since 2007, is investing almost $2 million over five years to make the program work. The idea is that increasing the availability of high-quality recycled materials will improve their ability to produce recycled packaging. "We are tackling this problem by providing funding directly to the people who can make a difference - local authorities," said Helene Roberts, Marks & Spencer's head of packaging. The initiative will also solve the lack of markets problem, which can devastate the recycling industry.
Finding ways to reduce material usage or reuse rather than recycle is always the greenest strategy, but this is a pretty good start, and an especially good example of a private-public partnership working for the greener good.
