Big tick winner

Boots The Chemists - A journey to Sustainability

Eco-efficiency Award

Boots’ strategy to minimise waste at source whilst reducing reliance on landfill has reduced waste costs and reduced use of virgin materials.

Processes

Boots The Chemists is the UK’s leading retailer of health and beauty products, and is uniquely positioned to maximise eco-efficiency processes from the design of products through to their manufacture and beyond.

Boots’ strategy is to minimise waste at source whilst reducing reliance on landfill.  To minimise waste at source the company has introduced 30% recycled plastic (rPET) into its “Ingredients” range of toiletries bottles, making it the first retailer in the UK to use recycled material in toiletries packaging, and has also reduced the thickness of plastic Monitored Dosage Service blister packs.

To reduce reliance of landfill, Boots recycles and reuses over 17 different types of material which otherwise would be disposed of to landfill.  It has also introduced:

  • 100% recyclable Free Standing Display Units (FSDU)
  • fully compostable packaging to its sandwiches
  • mixed plastic recycling at all shops
  • recycling of plastic bottles damaged during manufacture
  • recycling of redundant shop fittings
  • the backhauling of “waste” from shops

Impact

  • Since 2001/2002, Boots’ percentage of total waste recycled increased from 37% to 50.5%
  • Redesigning Monitored Dosage Service blister packs saved 70 tonnes of plastic annually
  • Using recycled materials in packaging saved £2100 in reduced material cost and used 20 tonnes less virgin plastic
  • Boots’ current recycling rate of 50% delivers around 67% saving in waste costs
  • Developing a 100% recyclable FSDU resulted in transport cost savings of £240,625, waste disposal saving of £165,000, saved 83 tonnes of cardboard annually and diverted 429 tonnes of waste from landfill
  • Recycling redundant shop fittings saved £15,000 in landfill costs
  • The introduction of mixed plastic recycling reduced waste costs by 30%
  • Recovering damaged plastic bottles diverted 20 tonnes of waste from landfill and produced an income of £1400 p.a.
  • From April 2006/07 Boots diverted 175 tonnes of “cosmetically damaged stock” from landfill saving around £22,500 in disposal costs
  • Packaging changes have saved 285 tonnes of plastic

See also