plastic food packaging

Recycling units for ‘soft’ plastics – which also includes product wrapping – will launch in 1,500 Co-op stores this month. The retailer added that the scheme would roll out to a total of 2,300 stores by November.

The Co-op said that the scheme follows a pilot of 50 stores last year which found that 86% of shoppers were likely to use the service. The recyclable material is turned, by Jayplas, into post-consumer plastic granules which are then made into secondary products including bin liners and materials for the construction industry.

Environmental groups have strengthened calls for thorough regulatory review of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in food contact materials (FCMs) after discovering that the US FDA cleared several PFASs for plastic food packaging manufacture in the past decade.

The NGOs’ findings – reached through a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) request – follow the detection of PFAS contamination in fluorinated polyethylene containers, which prompted EPA and FDA investigations and the latter’s warning against unauthorised fluorination.