Waitrose has partnered with Polytag on a scheme designed to monitor the volume of its plastic packaging that is being recycled.

The supermarket has rolled out invisible recycling tags at scale, adding them to plastic packaging on the majority of its own-label fresh milk range, with plans to expand use across additional major product ranges.

The supermarket’s £100k investment in detection units at two of the UK’s largest and most AI-advanced recycling facilities will enable Waitrose to capture data that validates the scale of recycling and will help to inform future decision-making about packaging design.

The units will detect the invisible tags when the packaging passes through them, and have capacity to detect tags from other schemes and retailers going forward, creating potential for cross-industry collaboration.

The tags, which are invisible to the eye but look similar to QR codes when scanned, and are easily integrated into existing packaging artwork, will allow Waitrose to collect data at the brand barcode level, helping provide evidence to confirm if packaging is being recycled. 

This data will also be used to help both Waitrose and the UK governments in England and Wales understand how customers are managing plastic and recycling at the end of a product’s life, and how best to engage consumers with the process of recycling.

“We know that many Waitrose customers are committed to recycling, and with Polytag’s invisible tag solution, we can start monitoring the recycling of our packaging at scale using real-time data”, said Denise Mathieson, Head of Packaging Innovation and Programme Delivery at Waitrose.

“Improving recycling and protecting resources requires collaboration, and we will be discussing with the UK government how this data can be used to positively incentivise industry action,” Mathieson added.

Alice Rackley, CEO of Polytag, commented: “Having barcode-level data is a fundamental starting point to benchmark and improve recycling performance over time – what gets measured gets managed.

The ambitions that Waitrose has for the Polytag solution are super exciting, and the whole team at Polytag is feeling energised by Waitrose’s vision and commitment to have an intentional positive impact on UK recycling performance.”