MORE than 400 products on the shelves at supermarket Morrisons will soon feature new labelling to make packaging easier to recycle.

The chain is introducing a new front-of-pack recycling scheme to help customers recycle more packaging on the products, which account for 500 million items sold each year.

Under the scheme, customers are invited to bring recyclable plastic packaging back to stores, which is not widely taken at kerbside.

And front-of-pack icons make it clear if the packaging can be recycled at home or at store.

They are:

• A 'Please Recycle Me’ icon appears on packaging that can be recycled at home – such as plastic milk and drink bottles.

• A 'Recycle Me In Store' icon features on bags – such as bread and potatoes, and films – such as toilet roll, which can't be widely recycled at kerbside.

Somerset County Gazette:

Additionally, labels on the back-of-pack give detail on all of the packaging components used – clarifying whether they can be recycled and where.

Natasha Cook, packaging manager at Morrisons, said: “Our customers tell us they want us to reduce packaging, and where we can't remove it they want to recycle it.

"So we are putting clear icons on the front of 400 popular purchases - and inviting customers to bring back packaging they can't recycle at home.

"The new clear 'at a glance' labels on the back of our packaging is also designed to help our customers recycle – whether pots, tubs, trays, bags, film, bottles or glass."

Morrisons has large recycling bins positioned at the front of all of its stores for its customers – which will accept all recyclable plastic bags, films and wraps.

The supermarket will recycle this plastic in the UK and turn it into recyclable carrier bags and bin bags – in a ‘closed loop’ system.

The move follows new research by Morrisons which shows that two thirds of customers are not confident whether they can recycle some plastics - including fruit and veg bags (64%), plastic wrap around toilet rolls (66%), and plastic bread bags (62%).

However, the research also revealed that 90 per cent of customers are more likely to recycle if there is a simple clear message on front of packaging - letting people know how to recycle it.