Sainsbury's embarks on landmark reverse vending tech trial

Sainsbury’s is the first retailer in England to test out a reverse vending machine that takes both glass and plastic bottles.

Located at its Newbury store in Berkshire and provided by Tomra Collection, this also accepts cans. Sainsbury’s is offering a 5p coupon for every drinks container returned via the machine.

Tomra Collection UK & Ireland’s Managing Director Truls Haug comments: “We are excited to be working with Sainsbury’s on this landmark trial. Showing how three materials can be easily collected in stores with our reverse vending technology is an important learning for retailers and consumers as we move towards an all-inclusive deposit return scheme in the UK.”

Iceland

Earlier this month, we reported that Iceland had recycled more than a million plastic bottles since launching a trial of reverse vending machines in May 2018.

The company gained feedback from its customers, who were given 10p vouchers for every plastic bottle returned, with 96% believing the scheme should be extended to all retailers. The main motivation for taking part was environmental concerns, with 67% choosing this option above any others.

Iceland has tested out the machines in five stores: Fulham, Mold, Musselburgh, Wolverhampton and Belfast. Two thirds of customers used them at least once a fortnight, and 75% believed the introduction of 20p deposits on plastic bottles would be a good idea.

Richard Walker, Managing Director at Iceland, commented: “Iceland was the first retailer to trial reverse vending machines and we believe the customer feedback we have received shows that our simple model of accepting all sizes of plastic drinks bottle – and extending this to include drinks cans - is the only sensible way to roll-out a deposit return scheme nationally.”

“We have more than 950 stores across the UK and with the support of the government we could fit a reverse vending machine in every one of our stores. With over one million bottles returned to just five of our stores, the positive environmental impact of having machines across the UK would be phenomenal.”

Walker’s comments came as the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) consulted with businesses, academics and members of the general public to determine how a national deposit return scheme should operate.