Tesco under fire for removing recycling bins from its Portsmouth supermarkets

City councillors said the step was 'retrograde' and will debate a cross-party motion next week calling on Tesco to bring back bins at its Fratton and Northarbour stores.

'The city council regrets the actions of Tesco who seem to be putting company profits before care for the environment and asks Tesco to bring back recycling centres in their Portsmouth stores,' the motion which has been supported by Lib Dem, Labour and Portsmouth Independents members will say.

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Concerns were first raised by the leader of the latter, councillor George Madgwick, last month about the Northarbour supermarket in his ward. He criticised the lack of any consultation.

Speaking at the time, council and Lib Dem leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said many attempts had been made to contact Tesco in response to this and the removal of bins in Fratton previously.

‘This should not have happened,’ he said. ‘Tesco should be committed to recycling and I'm really disappointed that they have chosen to withdraw recycling both from the north of the city and the south of the city.

‘We should join together to condemn Tesco for that and to be able to put pressure on them to try to make sure that they take their commitment to the environment seriously and not just pay it lip service.'

He will propose the motion at Tuesday's full council meeting while Labour leader Cal Corkery will second it. Support has already been confirmed by Cllr Madgwick.

Conservative leader Simon Bosher was approached to give his group's backing but he said he was ‘uncomfortable’ at its wording and said the council should be working with supermarkets rather than criticising them publicly.

‘I don’t think this is the right place to be raising these sorts of issues, and condemning Tesco' he said. ‘We shouldn't be picking fights with supermarkets when we could be working with them to improve recycling rates, which have dropped.’

Cllr Vernon-Jackson said the council was working to introduce door-to-door glass recycling ‘as soon as possible’ but said the council needs to put pressure on supermarkets given the amount of waste that comes from these stores.

A Tesco spokesman said the company worked in conjunction with local authorities and the recycling needs of each area.

He said: ‘At Tesco we are committed to reducing waste and promoting recycling and whilst we have withdrawn some of the facilities for materials which are collected by the local authority in kerbside collections, we will continue to provide a convenient solution for other materials our customers wish to recycle at our Portsmouth Extra and Fratton Park Extra stores.’

Tesco removed its bottle banks at the Fratton Extra store last year, saying that fly-tipping was to blame. Paper and cardboard banks were taken away as part of a national policy but the glass decision was made locally. At the time Cllr Vernon-Jackson described that decision as ‘absolutely wrong’ and called for it to be reversed.