Co-operative Group National Members Council South West

The National Members’ Council was back together in Manchester on 30 November for an early Christmas and our last meeting of 2019. It’s been a great year of collaboration and representation, making sure our members and communities are having their say to shape a Co-op we can all be proud of. Ending on a high, we also confirmed the appointment of our new Council Secretary, Andy Seddon.    At our November meeting, we then got into the Christmas spirit with a strategic board game to map out what areas we would prioritise to introduce new ways of co-operating, putting people and the planet first and developing a more meaningful membership. To introduce the the session, our Co-op Chair, Allan Leighton, and Chief Executive, Steve Murrells, started off our day together with an update on what’s been happening around our businesses to set the scene for the future. Allan shared that we’re in a good place across our businesses, despite being in a tough market, so it’s a good time to reshap

Own brand to be fully recyclable by the Summer By Michael Fletcher, Retail Chief Commercial Officer I’m extremely pleased to announce that all our own brand packaging on every single Co-op product will be 100% recyclable by this summer. We have already banned black plastic packaging from all of our Co-op own brand products, and by the summer of 2020 we’ll be phasing out all non-recyclable plastics and replacing them with those that can be reused or easily recycled. This move will be achieved by us delivering the largest ever UK-wide scheme to recycle all plastic film, which local councils don’t presently collect for recycling. After a spring store trial, the scheme will be rolled out nationally across our store estate by the summer. This means that everything from ready meal trays, crisps packets, sandwich cartons and all film including pasta, rice and bread bags, will be easy to recycle whether via kerbside collection or our closed loop scheme in stores. This is a