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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