Tesco axes ClubCard points for recycling

Tesco has reduced the loyalty points it gives for recycling after customers were found to be abusing the system.

The supermarket giant said some customers had broken up plastic bottles into tiny scraps so they got more ClubCard points for recycling.

Points were given for individual items recycled at the reverse vending machines, meaning that broken bottles were awarded as many points as the number of pieces they’d been broken into.

A Tesco spokesperson explained: “When we first installed the recycling centres we trialled different points systems at different locations, including points for plastic bottles.

“Unfortunately, this sometimes resulted in the system being misused with plastic items cut up into many small pieces in order to gain additional points, which we were unable to sustainably award points for.”

Loyalty points will now only be given for aluminium cans, the supermarket said.