Sainsbury’s has doubled the amount of Christmas card collection points in its stores this year to help customers recycle after the festive season and protect the world’s forests at the same time. The collection boxes will be in over 1,000 supermarkets and convenience stores throughout the country from Boxing Day until the 14th January – that’s twice as many as in 2012. Sainsbury’s online customers can also have their cards collected from their homes when they receive their online shop, making it even easier to recycle and help reduce the amount of household waste going to landfill.
The collected cards will be recycled and Sainsbury’s will make a donation to the Forest Stewardship Council UK (FSC) in the New Year based on the volume of cards. Last year it donated almost £9,000 to help the FSC with its work to promote responsible management of the world’s forests.
You will probably see the FSC tick-tree logo on the back of at least one of your Christmas cards this year. The FSC label on a product is your guarantee that the wood or paper it contains is not the result of illegal logging or damaging forestry practices. As well as greeting cards, you can see the logo on forest-friendly wrapping paper, tissues, books, furniture, kitchen utensils, wooden gifts and a whole variety of forest products. FSC certified Christmas cards are available from Sainsbury’s, and many other retailers both large and small.
It’s estimated that over a billion greeting cards are sold each year in the UK, many of these in the lead up to Christmas. Latest research for Sainsbury’s suggests that despite the popularity of technology, traditional handwritten cards are as popular as ever. In fact, of the 2,000 Brits recently surveyed, nine out of ten still send traditional Christmas cards and half recycle cards or wrapping paper once the festivities are over.
Paul Crewe, Sainsbury’s Head of Sustainability, Engineering & Energy said: “Giving and receiving cards remains a big part of Christmas and we’re delighted to have doubled our activity this year. We’ve had a really great response from customers in previous years and we’re hoping to make an even bigger donation this Christmas. It’s great for the invaluable work of the FSC and it complements our customer recycling centres at stores across the country, which is part of our promise to put all waste to positive use as we aim to become the UK’s greenest grocer.”
Rosie Teasdale, Deputy Director, FSC UK said: “Sainsbury’s donation provides essential support for our education and awareness-raising work, helping us to help people in the UK protect the world’s forests. Recycling paper results in less waste going to landfill, it reduces the pressure on forests, and it’s helping to give future generations the gift of healthy forests.”
Additionally, Sainsbury’s sells over five million rolls of wrapping paper each year - that’s enough to stretch from London to Tokyo and back. All ‘paper’ wrapping paper can also be placed in the Christmas card recycling collection boxes to support this activity.
Sainsbury’s achieved zero waste to landfill at all stores in 2013 and customers can recycle the following items at around 300 Sainsbury’s recycling centres, which complement existing kerbside collections:
Batteries: Every store provides a safe way for customers to dispose of batteries and Sainsbury’s customers recycled over 20 million batteries in 2013
Mixed paper and card: Each month Sainsbury's customers recycle over 250 tonnes of paper and card – equivalent to over 1 million copies of The Times newspaper
Mixed cans: Every month Sainsbury's customers recycle around four tonnes of cans and tins – enough to make 285 bicycles
Mixed glass and plastic: Over 13,000 tonnes of glass is thrown out in the UK during the festive season – from champagne and sherry bottles to mincemeat and cranberry sauce jars. Recycling this amount of glass would save over 4,000 tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent of taking around 1,300 cars off the road
Oxfam: Customers can recycle their clothing and other items like DVDs and books and support Oxfam at the same time. In fact, Sainsbury’s customers are the largest Oxfam donor (outside of their own shops) with over 3,000 tonnes of clothing and over 600 tonnes of books, CDs and DVDs donated between May 2012 and May 2013