The supermarket is Britain’s first to introduce new invisible recycling tags, significantly improving accountability and traceability at scale.
Developed by Welsh company Polytag, Waitrose has invested £100,000 to install two detector units at best-in-class AI-enabled recycling facilities. This means packaging which originates from the retailer will be automatically traced and data captured, so for the first time ever it will now be possible to show proof of recycling successes and failures, and use this information to inform decision-making.
The tags are invisible to the naked eye, but resemble QR codes, and can be easily integrated into the standard barcode. This relatively simple system can also be adapted at a future time, allowing other supermarkets, high street stores and schemes to utilise the technology.
‘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.’
‘It’s been a pleasure working with the Waitrose team to begin the journey of tagging and tracing their branded packaging,’ added Alice Rackley, CEO of Polytag.’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.’
Image: Polytag
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