Polytag has announced Marks & Spencer (M&S), a major UK retailer, is the first member of its Ecotrace Programme.
The UK-based recycling technology company introduced the scheme in March this year. M&S is the first brand to make a minimum contribution of GBP 50,000 to participate in the initiative, which will allow it to track what happens to its plastic packaging at recycling centres.
Polytag’s QR codes tag and trace packaging from the moment it’s labelled to the moment it’s scanned at recycling centres. The ‘unique-every-time’ codes are applied during standard plate-printing process with fluorescent UV ink. The company says the technology delivers a low-cost tag solution, invisible to the human eye and therefore easily incorporated to existing label artwork design.
Polytag has been collecting data on UV-tag detection from two recycling centres in England and Wales, with plastic packaging from brands including Ocado, Co-op, and Aldi.
As part of its participation in the Ecotrace programme, M&S will fund the installation of two more readers in recycling centres in Northern Ireland and England. The programme aims to deploy a network of UV-tag detection equipment across at least 40 sites across the UK, covering 90% of the country’s recycling throughput.
Products featuring Polytag’s QR codes will begin appearing on M&S shelves in the next three months. Data collected through tag scanning on recycling centres will allow M&S to accurately report how much of its plastic packaging gets recycled. That ability will become critical when the UK rolls out its Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme next year.
“‘Currently, [Fast-Moving Consumer Goods] brands have no visibility of what happens to its single-use plastic once it has been put in the bin,” said Alice Rackley, CEO of Polytag. “As Extended Producer Responsibility legislation comes into force, brands will need to take responsibility for packaging materials. Not only does our Ecotrace Programme aim to solve this problem by bringing together leading players across the UK to capture barcode-level information on single-use plastic, but it stands as an example of what passion and collaboration paired with tangible action can do,” she added.