Leading UK retailer is busy putting another wrinkle in its ‘Plan A’

The British retail chain Marks & Spencer [7], already famous for its Plan A strategy where the environment is concerned (“We call it Plan A because there is no Plan B,” CEO Stuart Rose once said), is now planning to invest about $7.7 million to help four local authorities in a curbside collection program [8]. The Web site packagingnews.co.uk quotes Helene Roberts, head of packaging at Marks & Spencer: “In order to move to the next level and make more of our packaging with recycled content, we need more materials at a higher quality collected at kerbside and made available to our suppliers. We are tackling this problem by providing funding directly to the people that can make a difference: local authorities.”
The idea is to fund such things as trucks and manpower to collect an extra 60,000 tons of waste packaging from the four local authorities. Marks & Spencer will reuse about 15,000 tons while other packaging producers will have access to the rest.