To: Mike Coupe CEO J Sainsburys plc
Please, let's reuse glass
Re-use glass packaging
Why is this important?
In June 2016, Sainsburys states in its Corporate Responsibility report that the company promotes 'Respect for our Environment'. With this in mind, I wonder how many of their customers (and future customers) would be interested to see the company offering to make a real difference to the amount of packaging that is needlessly and expensively 'recycled'. Would it not be better to re-use glass packaging rather than recycle after a single use?
The company's own-brand products could be sold in different sized bottles/jars of the same shape which customers would be encouraged to return to the store after use. The logistics of this exercise need not be as difficult to administer as might be thought, after all, delivery lorries arrive at stores full and leave empty and arrive at distribution hubs empty and leave full, the same could be said for manufacturing facilities.
From an efficiency and environmental standpoint, using refillable glass bottles is one of the least expensive packaging methods available, whereas using non-returnable glass bottles has always been one of the most expensive packaging options of any kind. Not only does the glass have to be transported to the recycling plant and mechanically crushed, but it also needs to be heated to around 1,500 °C, rather than 150 °C required for sterilization
If one of the UK's most trusted and used retailers trail-blazed a 'real' environmental policy by adopting re-using glass, imagine how many kW hrs will be saved, how much pollution prevented ... and how much less waste produced?
The company's own-brand products could be sold in different sized bottles/jars of the same shape which customers would be encouraged to return to the store after use. The logistics of this exercise need not be as difficult to administer as might be thought, after all, delivery lorries arrive at stores full and leave empty and arrive at distribution hubs empty and leave full, the same could be said for manufacturing facilities.
From an efficiency and environmental standpoint, using refillable glass bottles is one of the least expensive packaging methods available, whereas using non-returnable glass bottles has always been one of the most expensive packaging options of any kind. Not only does the glass have to be transported to the recycling plant and mechanically crushed, but it also needs to be heated to around 1,500 °C, rather than 150 °C required for sterilization
If one of the UK's most trusted and used retailers trail-blazed a 'real' environmental policy by adopting re-using glass, imagine how many kW hrs will be saved, how much pollution prevented ... and how much less waste produced?
