Countdown will extend its soft plastic recycling campaign in all of its Auckland stores, adding an additional 53 of the especially marked recycling bins across stores this month.

The soft plastic recycling program, which was launched in November last year, encourages customers to recycle a range of soft plastic packaging such as plastic shopping bags, bread, chip and frozen food packaging.

James Walker, Countdown general manager for corporate affairs, said the recycling results showed them the program is something their customers want to rally behind.

“Since the soft plastics recycling program launched in November last year Countdown customers have collected and dropped off more than 1,800kgs of soft plastic to be recycled,” Walker said. “At Countdown we are focused on minimising the impact our business has on the environment and we encourage our customers to join us.”

Lyn Mayes, project manager for the soft plastics recycling program, said the additional recycling locations in Auckland is a game-changer for public awareness of the program.

“This is a step change for Auckland and we are anticipating a significant uptake in collection volumes as Countdown customers begin to notice the bins popping up and the program continues to grow in popularity. With Auckland now fully covered by Countdown, The Warehouse, Pak N Save and New World, we can now look at our next roll out in Wellington as we continue to work towards our goal of covering 70 per cent of the country over the next two years,” Mayes said.

Countdown won the Resilience to Climate Change category for their work in increasing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions at this year’s Green Ribbon Awards run by the Ministry for the Environment.