Marks and Spencer has become the first supermarket to introduce invisible, ultraviolet tags on some milk bottles, aiming to revolutionise how plastic packaging is tracked through the recycling system. Developed by recycling technology firm Polytag, these innovative tags are now printed onto the labels of M&S’s four-pint milk bottles available nationwide, with the primary goal of significantly boosting recycling rates.
Once households recycle these bottles, Polytag’s plastic detection units will scan them if the recycling facility has been retrofitted with the necessary technology. This process will provide M&S with live recycling data, offering real-time, barcode-level insights into the journey of its single-use plastic packaging.
