Sainsbury’s charges up for green scheme

Sainsbury’s has launched an eco-initiative to help customers recycle spare mobile phone chargers.

Sainsbury's

The supermarket its introducing recycle bins for the hard to recycle chargers at all its stores for four weeks throughout August.

The scheme is part of Sainsbury’s “Make a Difference Days” programme, which sees the chain tackle specific environmental issues at its stores.

It aims to collect 150,000 unused mobile phone chargers and prevent them going to landfill. If Sainsbury’s and its customers hit the target the supermarket claims it will increase recycling rates by 50%.

Neil Sachdev, Sainsbury’s property director, says: “By running this campaign, we hope to raise awareness of charger recycling facilities, while at the same time preventing nearly 40 tonnes of waste from going to landfill.

The initiative was suggested by Sainsbury’s staff as an addition to its existing mobile phone and sat-nav recycling scheme and created in partnership with We Are What We Do, the organisation that created the I Am Not A Plastic Bag camapaign Sainsbury’s in 2007.

An in store communications camapaign has been developed by We Are What We Do, as well as a campaign website on which customers can see how the collection is progressing.

There are an estimated 20 million unused old chargers in homes across the UK and one million new chargers coming into use each year.