RECYCLING throughout Hampshire has been made easier as you're now able to recycle soft plastics at even more Co-op stores. 

Following the success of its trials and in response to customer demand, Southern Co-op now has soft plastics recycling bins in 66 of its stores in Hampshire. 

This means that you can take your soft plastics to be recycled at these stores, such as cling film, biscuit wrappers and carrier bags.

In doing so co-operative stores hope its expansion of soft plastics recycling bins to more than 80 per cent of all of its stores will enable more customers to safely recycle materials that can't be recycled at home.

Simon Eastwood, chief operating officer for retail at Southern Co-op, said: "We started to trial these towards the end of last year and they have been really well received by both customers and colleagues.

"We would ask recyclers to double-check if their plastics can be recycled before putting them in the bin. One way to do this is the scrunch test. It also needs to have had a quick clean but it doesn't need to have been bought in-store to be recycled with us."

All Co-op branded food packaging is now also easy to recycle through a combination of kerbside collections and soft plastic recycling in-store.

Once collected, the recyclable material is sent to a company called Jayplas which will turn it into post-consumer plastic granules. These are then made into secondary products such as bin liners and buckets.

Gemma Lacey, director of sustainability and communications at Southern Co-op, said: "We all need to do our bit to ensure our future is waste-free. We are really pleased with how the trials of soft plastic recycling have gone so far and are now keen to enable more people to make use of it.

"We know the appetite for change is there within our communities and together we can all play our part in making a positive difference to our environment and our communities."

All store waste is already diverted from landfill with dry mixed items separated for recycling and food are broken down to produce biogas and bio-fertiliser through anaerobic digestion.

This is one area of work that forms part of Southern Co-op's climate action activity and is available at various stores across Hampshire, such as Andover East Anton Farm, Basingstoke Kings Road, Romsey Abbotswood Common Road and more. 

For more go to southern.coop/how-we-do-it/sustainability