Recycle soft plastics at Coles


Coles is Helping Australia Grow by supporting recycling of plastic bags and packaging, turning them into outdoor furniture for Aussie primary schools and pre-schools.

Look out for the recycle bins in Coles stores and simply drop in your soft plastics.

If you don’t have a convenient soft plastics recycling location near you, you can mail your soft plastic to:

RED Group
Attn: Plastic packaging recycling
80C Maffra Street
Coolaroo, VIC 3048



Types of soft plastics:

  • Shopping bags including reusable 'green’ bags
  • Fresh fruit and vegie bags
  • Bread bags
  • Biscuit packaging and confectionery packaging
  • Rice & pasta packets and frozen food bags


Results so far

  • One tonne of soft and flexible plastic packaging collected every week from our Melbourne stores. 
  • In the first twelve months of the initiative in Melbourne, Coles customers recycled more than 37 tonnes of material - that’s more than 9 million items of plastic packaging! If lined up end to end, this would be enough plastic to circle the Melbourne Cricket Ground 8,300 times. That’s a lot of plastic we’ve kept out of landfill!
  • Through its partnership with RED Group and Replas, Coles has been able to turn this plastic into 40 benches for schools and pre-schools. 

 

Reusable Bags

We are committed to reducing our impact on the environment. In an effort to help reduce the number of single use plastic bags we issue and encourage greater use of reusable bags when shopping, we offer a range of bag options for our customers to purchase in store. When purchasing the 99 cent Landcare reusable bags 5 cents from the sale of each bag donated to support Coles' School Garden Grants Program

 

Coles bottled spring water



Coles is a member of the Australian Packaging Covenant, which sets sustainable packaging guidelines, such as reducing the weight of products and using recycled materials where possible.

We have made some good strides in this regard. Coles bottled spring water, produced by Mountain H2O,  is now up to 40% lighter due to an improved bottling process which uses less fuel and water, and saves 187,000 kgs of plastic over a year.




Reducing energy use in stores

Most of the energy used by Coles is to run refrigeration and provide lighting and climate control for our stores. Although we’re a major energy consumer, our carbon emissions have been declining since 2009, due to a range of energy saving initiatives, which include installing:


  • Night blinds on open refrigeration cases in stores
  • Automated lighting controls to reduce the lighting used by stores outside of trading hours
  • Anti-condensate heater controls on glass door freezers; and
  • Voltage optimisation to limit the energy we take from the grid

These initiatives helped to contribute to our parent company, Wesfarmers Limited, receiving Ethical Investor magazine’s most sustainable company of the year award in 2011.


Coles will continue to focus on reducing energy consumption and is the first Australian supermarket retailer to develop a Greenstar rating tool with Green Building Australia in 2011. The tool will enable us to rate the sustainability of future supermarket developments.

Visit Wesfarmers Sustainability Report 2011 for more information about our energy efficiency programs.




Junior Landcare

Junior Landcare

Since 2008, we have partnered with Junior Landcare to offer Coles Junior Landcare Garden Grants. The grants, which provide funding up to $1000, help schools, kindergartens and community groups set up gardens in communities and school grounds, giving kids a fun and interactive opportunity to learn about nature and environmental sustainability.


Previous successful grant recipients have used the funding for a variety of garden projects, including vegetables, herbs, bush tucker, as well as water wise and multicultural gardens along with worm farm, composting and recycling projects.


Coles Junior Landcare Garden Grants are funded through the sale of reusable shopping bags sold at Coles, which encourages customers to bring their own shopping bags and minimise the use of plastic bags. To find out more about the wonderful projects we’ve funded, please visit www.juniorlandcare.com.au/case-studies

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