Foodstuffs has rolled out its recycling initiative to Wellington, where customers can now recycle their plastic and metal caps and lids in-store.
Together with The Packaging Forum’s Caps and Lids Recycling Scheme, the supermarket has set up collection points across 11 New World and Pak’n’Save supermarkets across the region.
The scheme ensures that caps and lids are collected, processed, and repurposed into new products. Earthlink, a community enterprise based in Lower Hutt, will gather the recycling boxes from participating stores and community hubs for transportation to processing partners.
Metal caps are sent to recyclers in New Zealand, such as Hayes Metals and Simms Metals. Pact Recycling processes plastic caps in Auckland before sending them to Australia for final recycling into new products, including wheelie bins and plant pots.
Debra Goulding, sustainable packaging manager at Foodstuffs, said the company wants to make recycling easier for customers and ensure packaging materials stay in circulation rather than end up in landfills.
“It takes a village to make a difference, and the support of our partners across the collection, transport, and recycling network has been instrumental to the programme’s success,” added Goulding.
The recycling program was launched in September last year, and it has already diverted an estimated four tonnes of plastic and metal caps and lids from landfills. Its expansion into Wellington brings the number of drop-off points to nearly 50 across New Zealand, with 30 of the sites being Foodstuffs supermarkets.
Foodstuffs Wellington Collection points:
- Pak’n’Save Lower Hutt
- New World Churton Park
- New World Hutt City
- New World Island Bay
- New World Miramar
- New World Newlands
- New World Newtown
- New World Otaki
- New World Porirua
- New World Tawa
- New World Thorndon
The program will be expanded to Hamilton and Dunedin in April, with work underway to ensure the infrastructure and partners are in place to support the initiative.
