September 6, 2006—ASDA announced recently that it will stop sending any waste produced by its 307 food stores to landfill sites, in line with its parent company Wal-Mart’s environmental goals. It has also embarked on a complete review of its own label packaging to reduce the amount of consumer waste.
The commitment means that by 2010 everything the supermarket disposes of at the back of its stores will be recycled, reused, or composted instead of being sent to landfill. In addition, all of the products it sells (under the ASDA brand) will be redesigned over the next 18 months, with the aim of reducing the weight and volume of packaging it produces by at least ten per cent.
ASDA says it has already successfully redesigned all its salad bags by reducing the thickness of the plastic by 15%, and removed an unnecessary cardboard sleeve on a selection of its ready meals. The redesigned packaging is now set to be rolled out across dozens more food products in the coming months.
Hazardous wastes such as paint and fluorescent tubes are also segregated and collected, while waste meat and fish (animal by-product waste) is composted for use as a soil conditioner. Waste photographic chemicals are collected by ASDA to recover the precious metals contained in them, such as silver.
For more information on ASDA and its environmental strategies, visit online.
