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Waitrose trials natural cork return scheme

01 October 2024 By Arabella Mileham

Upmarket UK grocer Waitrose is launching a trial natural cork return scheme in seven stores across the south of England as it looks to unlock the potential of “circular material”.

The move, which db understands has been in planning for over a year, will see new cork collection points set up in store at its Salisbury store from next week (7 October), with Saltash, Lymington, Bath, Godalming, Truro and Maidenhead set to follow (the Maidenhead store will relaunches in November).

Customers will be encouraged to deposit their used natural corks for recycling through Amorim, the largest cork processing group in the world, with learnings from the trial set to to determine how best to roll the scheme out more widely. Recycled natural cork can be repurposed to make household items such as placemats, coasters, flooring or even shoes as well as soil mulch, it said, however the ultimate aim is to explore “innovative applications of recycled cork in future propositions” the retailer said, as part of a the retailers’ wider circular economy strategy.

It follows the supermarket’s move to remove the plastic and metal foil capsules on a selection of its own-label wines in April 2023.

According to Waitrose beer wine and spirits global bulk wine sourcing manager Barry Dick, MW, the retailer’s customers get through nearly 25 million natural corks a year.

“Currently this valuable material does not have its own waste stream which means it ends up in landfill. Cork is a durable material and has the potential to be repurposed into a variety of products after it has been used as a wine cork,” he said. “This trial is a fantastic way for us to reduce waste and play a part in improving our sustainability as a category. Once we’ve gauged our customer’s appetite to return their natural corks, we’re hoping to roll the trial out to further stores from next year.”

UK specialist wine retailer Majestic was the first to launch a cork recycling scheme across its store estate back in September 2021.