London, 2017-Dec-01 — /EPR Retail News/ — Iceland fully supports Greenpeace’s call for the Government to impose a bottle DepositReturn Scheme (DRS).
Richard Walker, Director for Sustainability at Iceland Foods, said: “Every minute, a truckload of plastic waste enters our oceans. In Britain, we are failing to recycle up to 16 million single use plastic bottles every day.
“This cannot carry on. It is causing untold damage to our oceans and wildlife. It is also a ticking time bomb for humanity, since we all ultimately depend on a healthy ocean environment for our own survival.
“Deposit Return Schemes work. In Norway theirs has led to 96% of all bottles being returned, with similar results in other countries that have adopted a DRS. Britain urgently needs to do the same.
“Introducing a DRS may well add to our costs of doing business. However, we believe it is a small price to pay for the long term sustainability of this planet. I urge all other retailers to do the right thing and follow suit.”
In addition, Iceland has offered its support by hosting a DRS reverse vending machine within a number of its stores for the Government to trial.
About Iceland Foods
Iceland is recognised as the leader in frozen food with 900 stores in the UK. The company prides itself on being a convenient and friendly place to do the family’s weekly shop, as well as to meet everyone’s daily top-up shopping needs for fresh, chilled and frozen food and groceries. Since 1970 Iceland has been proudly demonstrating to shoppers just how the Power of Frozen can deliver an extensive choice of high quality, great-tasting food from fine sources around the world at great value prices. With the Power of Frozen at its heart, Iceland naturally generates low levels of food waste. In the 1980s the company led the way in removing artificial colours, flavours and non-essential preservatives from its own label products, while in the 1990s it became the first national food retailer to remove GM ingredients from its own brand range. Its long history of environmental action includes the launch of the Kyoto range of fridges and freezers in partnership with Greenpeace in 1998, and it has recently completed a company-wide conversion to LED lighting to reduce its carbon footprint. Iceland has won multiple awards for the quality of its products and services, including being named Online Supermarket of the Year by both The Grocer and IGD in 2017. It has ranked as one of the UK’s Best Big Companies to Work For in each of the last 11 years, and was number one in both 2012 and 2014.
ENQUIRIES:
Keith Hann
Director of Corporate Affairs
01244 842228 / 07831 521870
kh@keithhann.com
Source: Iceland Foods