From next week, UK’s Tesco supermarket will start using recycled coastal plastic in some of its fish packaging, with the recycling verified using blockchain technology.
“Where we can, we are reducing the amount of new plastic we use in our business,” said Sarah Bradbury, Tesco Quality Director. “Re-using coastal plastic in our fish packaging is one way we can do that and at the same time keep it out of the oceans.”
The packaging material used for salmon, haddock, cod and sea bass will contain at least 30% recycled plastics retrieved from Europe’s Mediterranean coastline by a mix of volunteers, non profits, local authorities and private sector initiatives.
Tesco has partnered with Keep Sea Blue, a for-profit organization that connects waste collectors with recyclers and brands, and certifies the process by logging details using blockchain, with Oracle blockchain as the partner.
Another organization that retrieves plastics from beaches is Plastic Bank which incentivizes collectors with tokens and works with partners such as Gilette and SC Johnson.
Several initiatives use blockchain to track plastic recycling. Circularise has alliances with Shell, Philips, and Marubeni, to name just a few. Security Matters (SMX) includes PepsiCo as a partner and is about to list on Nasdaq via a SPAC merger. And Fujitsu has a recycling partnership with Teijin for recycling carbon fiber.
