Waste Strategy for England 2007 - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by the John Lewis Partnership (Waste 60)

  The John Lewis Partnership ("Partnership") has been invited to give oral evidence to the EFRA Select Committee in their examination of the Government's Waste Strategy for England (2007). This note is intended to support that oral evidence.

1.0  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1  The John Lewis Partnership's waste strategy is based on our ambition to divert our waste from landfill by reducing, reusing, recycling or recovering energy from all our commercial waste and packaging. This strategy is delivered in Waitrose and John Lewis through targets, Key Performance Indicators and a wide range of initiatives.

1.2  Waitrose is a signatory to the Courtauld Commitment, a voluntary agreement that supports initiatives which create less packaging and food waste ending up in household bins.

  1.3  We fully support the Packaging Waste Regulations, and contribute over £1 million a year towards a recycling compliance scheme that invests in kerbside collections and public recycling centres so that customers can recycle the packaging they take home.

  1.4  The Partnership is a signatory to the national Voluntary Code of Practice on Carrier Bags.

  1.5  With WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and some other retailers we have agreed a standard recycling labelling scheme for packaging.

  1.6  Waitrose is piloting both biodegradable and compostable packaging, but, due to the lack of industrial and publicly accessible composting facilities, do have concerns about a complete conversion to biodegradable sources.

  1.7  Food waste is a top priority for Waitrose and is fully supportive of WRAP's target to "Reduce the amount of food wasted in UK homes by 155,000 tonnes by March 2010, against a 2008 baseline".

  1.8  The Partnership is fully supportive of the Government's commitment to anaerobic digestion. Five Waitrose branches have been successfully trailing anaerobic digestion and we plan to extend the trial to approximately 50 of our Waitrose branches, and to include our first Department Store trials at Oxford Street and Peter Jones.

  1.9  We may need to utilise the most modern types of "energy from waste" plants if we are to divert all our waste from landfill. However, the existing level of "energy from waste" infrastructure is currently insufficient for the future requirements of the Partnership.

2.0  JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP—BACKGROUND

  2.1  The John Lewis Partnership comprises two of the UK's leading retail businesses—Waitrose, John Lewis as well as a direct services company, Greenbee. We also own a production unit in the North of England and a farm in Hampshire. (This note only relates to Waitrose and John Lewis).

2.2  Like any business, the John Lewis Partnership is commercial and competitive, but it is also the UK's largest and longest-lasting example of employee ownership. We believe our co-ownership business model gives us three significant advantages:

    —  It allows us to take a long-term view.

    —  It means we can maximise the value of employee ownership.

    —  It enables us to act in the interests of society.

3.0  JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP'S WASTE STRATEGY

  3.1  Our waste strategy is based on our ambition to divert our waste from landfill by reducing, reusing, recycling or recovering energy from all our commercial waste and packaging. In delivering that goal we have formulated a range of targets for both Waitrose and John Lewis. In summary:

Waitrose targets

    —  Recycle 75% of all Waitrose waste by year-end 2012. —  Eliminate packaging growth by year-end 2008.

    —  Reduce own-brand packaging by 2013 on a like-for-like basis, compared with 2005, and work with suppliers to encourage similar reductions.

    —  Apply packaging recyclability labelling to own-brand products by year-end 2009.

    —  Help to reduce the overall environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by year-end 2008.

    —  Continue to explore ways to reduce food waste and provide practical information in-store and online to raise customer awareness of this issue.

    —  Continue anaerobic digestion trials.

  In 2007-08, Waitrose achieved the following:

    —  Recycled 49% of all its waste.

    —  36% reduction in packaging since 2000, relative to sales.

    —  Reduce carrier bag usage by nearly 26% this year—a reduction of around 52 million bags (as of September 2008).

    —  Rolling-out packaging material identification labelling to own-brand products.

    —  Nearly four million Bags for Life handed out (63% increase); trialling carrier bags with 33% recycled content; Bag for Life's to contain 100% recycled material in the new year.

John Lewis targets

    —  Recycle 50% of all John Lewis waste by year-end 2010.

      Help to reduce the overall environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by year-end 2008.

    In 2007-08, John Lewis achieved the following:

    —  Recycled 39% of all its waste.

    —  Bag for Life introduced in March 2008.

    —  Plastic bags will contain 95% recycled content by end September 2008.

4.0  REDUCING OUR PACKAGING

  4.1  The Partnership created 117,000 tonnes of packaging last year (86% by Waitrose), and although packaging makes up only 4% of the waste going to landfill, it is an issue of particular concern to our customers and to our businesses.

4.2  Packaging is essential for the integrity and safety of our products, and protects them in transit, but over packaging has environmental and financial costs. We are keen to find a balance between reducing packaging and making sure it still protects our products in transit and on the shelf.

  4.3  Our packaging also needs to display all the necessary information our Partners (our employees) need to merchandise the product and our customers to purchase it, as well as help stock rotation, improve product quality and extend shelf life.

  4.4  Waitrose is a signatory to the Courtauld Commitment, a voluntary agreement between WRAP and major UK grocery organisations. This agreement supports initiatives which create less packaging and food waste ending up in household bins. Collectively, we have now achieved the first Courtauld target of delivering zero packaging growth, despite a sharp increase in sales.

  4.5  Our latest packaging initiatives at Waitrose include:

    —  Reducing the weight of the cardboard sleeve of our breaded fish by 33%, salad bag film by 14% and Delicatezze range of plastic pots by 20% by removing the lid.

    —  Our strawberry punnets and lids now made from 100% recycled polyethylene teraphthalate (PET).

    —  Removing all the cardboard from our 2008 range of Easter eggs and using plastic with 40% recycled PET.

    —  Waitrose also looks for opportunities for reuse—its returnable transit packaging is used for around 40 million trips annually throughout our supply chain.

  4.6  At John Lewis, a number of packaging initiatives are in place, including:

    —  Ensuring all new paper and card packaging uses either recycled or Forest Stewardship Council-sourced material.

    —  Reducing our use of plastic packaging, and replace PVC packaging with material with recycling potential.

    —  Aiming to introduce 50 new "lightweight" packaging lines a year.

5.0  OUR PACKAGING OBLIGATIONS

  5.1  Under the terms of the Packaging Waste Regulations, we are obliged to recover and recycle up to 80% (depending on the material) of our product packaging. We fully support this legislation, and contribute over £1 million a year towards a recycling compliance scheme that invests in kerbside collections and public recycling centres so that customers can recycle the packaging they take home. The legislation has driven improvements in packaging recovery rates from 6% in 1997 to over 60% today.

5.2  CARRIER BAGS

  5.3  Both Waitrose and John Lewis are signatories to a national Voluntary Code of Practice on Carrier Bags, which was agreed in February 2007. We have been working with WRAP and other retailers to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by the end of 2008. Our efforts have included:

At Waitrose:

    —  promoting our Waitrose Bag for Life—which costs 10 pence and is replaced free of charge when damaged or worn out, with returned bags being recycled into "plaswood" furniture, among other things, which we donate to good causes;

    —  selling a range of reusable jute bags including designs for Quick Check self-scan users;

    —  trialling bags made from 33% recycled material that carry stronger messaging about reuse and recycling;

    —  pilot schemes for bag-free "green tills" and making our Saffron Walden shop completely carrier-bag-free for two weeks;

    —  introducing prominent communication to customers in every shop prompting them to reuse their existing bags; and

    —  introducing carrier bag recycling facilities in all Waitrose shops.

  At John Lewis:

    —  providing a variety of reusable bags;

    —  introducing a reusable Bag for Life in all shops in March 2008;

    —  using 25% recycled material in our standard plastic bags and following a successful trial, rolling out a bag made from 95% recycled content by the end of September; and

    —  trialling carrier bag recycling facilities in Sheffield, Newcastle, Norwich and Southampton.

  5.4  As a result of the activities in Waitrose, as well as an increased focus on training of in-store Partners, we have seen a reduction in carrier bag usage of nearly 26% this year (a reduction of 52 million bags). Although feedback on green tills and bagless shops was positive, they have not brought the sustained reductions we need. We are therefore continuing to focus on Partner training and customer awareness which in trials have shown reductions in carrier bag use of between 45% and 60%. We are optimistic that we can achieve an overall 50% reduction by May 2009.

  5.5  In John Lewis, the introduction of a Bag for Life and reusable jute bag have helped drive a reduction of 8% in free issue carrier bags. John Lewis are also working to introduce a wider variety of reusable bags to help drive further reductions in carrier bag usage.

6.0  BIODEGRADABLE PACKAGING AND COMPOSTING

  6.1  We continually explore the environmental and technical feasibility of alternative materials, such as biodegradable packaging. Waitrose is piloting both biodegradable and compostable packaging for our organic range of pre-packed fruit and vegetables. Through these and similar trials, we can monitor the technical performance of biodegradable materials.

6.2  However, we do have concerns about a complete conversion to biodegradable sources: because there are still few industrial and publicly accessible composting facilities available, the vast majority of biodegradable packaging will be disposed of to landfill for the foreseeable future.

7.0  RECYCLING INITIATIVES

  7.1  Our waste and recycling procedures continue to deliver substantial cost savings and a step change in our waste recycling. helping us towards our ongoing objective to recycle 75% of all Waitrose waste by the end of 2012 and 50% of all John Lewis waste by end of 2010.

7.2  In an attempt to maximise the recycling opportunities across the business, we have:

    —  introduced battery recycling and polystyrene briquette-making at our Waitrose store in Cambridge;

    —  teamed up both businesses to backhaul cardboard and polythene from our Waitrose store in Rushden each month by John Lewis vehicles to their Distribution Centre in Northampton, making the best use of lorry space and reducing our dependency on specialist contractor collections. A similar arrangement is happening between the Waitrose store in Comely Bank and the John Lewis department store in Edinburgh; and

    —  drawn up plans to send non-recyclable waste from the Waitrose head office in Bracknell to a purpose-built "energy from waste" incineration facility, due to be commissioned next year.

8.0  FOOD WASTE

  8.1  According to WRAP's recent report "The Food We Waste", we throw away around one-third of the food we buy in the UK, of which 61%—4.1 million tonnes—could have been eaten. That means that, in addition to the £1 billion it costs local authorities to send this waste to landfill, we spend £10 billion every year on food that is just thrown away.

8.2  To raise awareness of the issue with Partners and customers, we are supporting WRAP's "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign, launched in November 2007, by providing practical information both in-store and online. We also have a dedicated food waste page on the Waitrose website—www.waitrose.com/foodwaste.

  8.3  We also work collaboratively with our suppliers to ensure our quality and delivery specifications minimise food wastage. We have also endeavoured to accept food that is cosmetically imperfect in order to support our suppliers in the event of unforeseen and difficult weather conditions. For example, last year, a large percentage of the UK apple crop was damaged by hail, but we accepted the fruit for sale and communicated this to our customers.

  8.4  We are also working with our farmers and growers to reduce waste within the supply chain. For example, we have been working very closely with a group of 100 banana growers in the Windward Islands to look at how fruit is cultivated and transported with the aim of reducing wastage on selection in the UK. Our initial findings have shown that wastage from shipped fruit has reduced from an estimated 40% in 2002 to less than 3% in 2008.

  8.5  Waitrose is also working with FareShare, a national UK charity supporting communities to relieve food poverty, to look at ways of utlising surplus "fit for purpose" products throughout our supply chain.

9.0  LEADERSHIP ON ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

  9.1  The John Lewis Partnership is fully supportive of the Government's commitment to anaerobic digestion. A trial for the past three months at five Waitrose branches has been successful in sending food waste, both naked and primary packaged, to an anaerobic digestion plant in north Bedford. This has turned 71 tonnes of food waste into 14 megawatt hours of electricity—enough to boil 5,000 electric kettles for one hour.

9.2  Waitrose has been the first supermarket group to conduct a trial on this scale, and we now intend to extend the trial to approximately 50 of our Waitrose branches, and to include our first Department Store trials at Oxford Street and Peter Jones.

  9.3  This initiative will see us routing approximately 25% of the Partnership's food waste to electricity production—rather than to landfill. The cost to do so is neutral compared to the current collection method of transporting food waste to landfill. However, as landfill costs continue to rise, this approach will reduce our future costs.

  9.4  In addition to the energy which is generated, the digestate residue from the process, which is high in nitrates, can be spread on the land at certain times of year as a fertiliser to grow crops—and no damaging methane gas is released into the atmosphere.

  9.5  The only constraint, and where Government can do more, is that today the number of anaerobic digestion plants is very small as it is new technology to this country. As plants proliferate there is every reason to believe that all our food waste could be recycled in this manner.

10.0  THE NEED FOR ADDITIONAL ENERGY FROM WASTE FACILITIES AND EFFICIENT NOVEL TECHNOLOGIES

  10.1  The John Lewis Partnership is committed to implementing the waste hierarchy of—waste prevention first, followed by re-use and then recycle/compost. However, for those materials that cannot usefully or economically be segregated for recycling, we do believe that there is a role for modern "energy from waste" plants. They do divert waste from landfill and create electricity—both of which the country needs. Whilst we are aware of the controversy surrounding some previous schemes, we may need to utilise the most modern types of "energy from waste" plants if we are to divert all our waste from landfill (for example, Grundon waste management power station).

10.2  The existing level of "energy from waste" infrastructure is insufficient for the future requirements of the Partnership. As a result we are actively investigating a range of emerging technologies as a way of dealing with our waste.

11.0  ENCOURAGING CUSTOMERS

  11.1  To help our customers to recycle more, we clearly identify the materials used in our own-label packaging where possible. We have also reviewed our back-of-pack packaging information and issued revised guidelines to ensure our packaging information is clear, consistent and easy to understand. As part of these guidelines, we have worked with WRAP, the BRC and some of the retail signatories to the Courtauld Commitment to agree a standard recycling labelling scheme for packaging.

11.2 This voluntary initiative will replace the current array of recycling symbols and messages with a single RecycleNow logo and an icon to indicate whether the packaging is:

    —  "widely recycled"—recycled by over 65% of local authorities;

    —  "check locally"—recycled by 20-65% of local authorities; and

    —  "not currently recycled"—recycled by under 20% of local authorities.

  11.3  Our aim is to introduce the new labelling across all our own-brand products in Waitrose by 2009. John Lewis is phasing in the labelling when new packaging specifications are made.

11.0  STAFF TRAINING AND AWARENESS

  11.1  We recognise that good staff awareness, combined with clear procedures and infrastructure, is key to achieving current targets and stretching further our recycling ambitions. In 2007 John Lewis launched a "War on Waste" guidance document to aid management of the various waste streams in each branch, supported by an environmental awareness day in staff dining rooms. In 2008 this document is being updated to include information regarding the lifecycle of our recyclable materials, and national and local recycling solutions currently in place for John Lewis waste.

11.2  In Waitrose a "Green Day" is planned for 16 shops on 14 October to raise Partner awareness of recycling and energy efficiency opportunities in their own homes as well as at work.

  11.3  During 2008 recycling articles have appeared in the Partnerships' local and national weekly employee magazines, the Chronicle and Gazette. These articles gave an overview of the Recycling & Waste teams' progress to date and future ideas as part of a communication plan to improve Partners knowledge of the topic and raise awareness of the part they each have to play.

  11.4  Four different suites of recycling bins are about to undergo trials in John Lewis and Waitrose Partner dining rooms ahead of a Partnership wide rollout in 2009. These bins, along with clear signage, will introduce a uniform approach and make it easy for Partners to recycle their waste.

  11.5  We have also supported the Environment's Agency's annual promotion of World Environment Day, encouraging Partners to make small lifestyle changes to protect the environment.

  11.6  We have recently produced a Packaging and Waste Q&A for Waitrose shop Partners to help them respond to the high volume of customer enquiries they have on these issues. This is also used by our Customer Services team.

  11.7  We also report on our performance in this area, through our John Lewis, Waitrose and Partnership CSR reports, our Partnership website and other CSR communications to Partners (eg Gazette and Chronicle articles, jlpnet, partnerconnect, posters, CSR DVDs etc).

The John Lewis Partnership

October 2008



 
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