Marks & Spencer is teaming up with a recycling technology group to enable the retailer to trace what happens to its drinks bottles, cartons and other plastic packaging. The Polytag system prints an invisible tag on to containers, which can be picked up by electronic readers located at recycling centres. Products featuring the tags will begin appearing on shelves in the next three months. Related: ‘It just didn’t work’: how businesses are struggling with re-useable packaging Different aspects of the system have been tested with The Co-op, Aldi and Ocado, the online grocery specialist which has also invested in Polytag, but this will be the first full-scale use of the scheme. As part of the project, M&S will also fund the installation of two readers at recycling sites in Northern Ireland and Edmonton, north London, which will add to two existing sites on Teesside and one in north Wales. The Welsh government is also funding the installation of readers at a further three recycling centres in the country. In a year’s time, Polytag is aiming to have more than 12 sites that will account for half of all the single-use plastic household waste recycled in the UK, as it expects...