In 2022¹, operational waste redistribution stood at 86.2% with overall waste volume down year-on-year.
Operational waste, which we handle in our stores, depots and offices, comes from a range of areas, including packaging from the supply chain, product damages and returns, pharmaceutical and hazardous materials, as well as customer waste from car parks, recycling bins and cafes.
Our zero-waste policy guides our efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and redistribute our operational waste, and since 2019, we have sent zero waste from our operations to landfill. Our definition of zero waste is 90% of all operational waste being reused, recycled, repurposed or donated to charity, with zero waste to landfill.
¹This was both recyclable and non-recyclable waste. 2022 was the first full year after two years of Covid where stores were back fully operational with customer cafes and car park bins.
The largest type of waste we handle at our sites comes from the secondary or transit packaging on the goods we sell. All our cardboard and plastic film is sorted at the back of each store and returned to one of our nine Asda Service Centres around the UK. There, materials are further separated and baled ready for recycling by our waste service providers. The cardboard is most likely to return to Asda as a new cardboard box, and the plastic film is segregated by polymer type and some of it returns for a second life as an Asda Bag For Life.
