Research - supermarkets and plastic

After Blue Planet 2, lots of big companies including supermarkets pledged to reduce their plastic use. Since this, Greenpeace partnered with The Environmental Investigation Agency to make a report on which supermarkets actually have cut down their use of plastic and kept their pledge. 

Supermarkets are responsible for  59 billion pieces of single-use plastics every year. 

FIVE supermarkets have no specific targets to reduce plastic packaging

Despite their huge combined plastic footprint, Aldi, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose have no specific reduction targets for plastic packaging. And of the supermarkets that do have targets, most are moving at such a slow pace (just 5% per year) that it would take them 20 years to completely rid their shelves of throwaway plastic.

Only FOUR supermarkets offer customers some options to use refillable containers

The most effective way to reduce reliance on single use packaging is to normalise refill or reuse options – and it’s an approach that both cuts plastic pollution and helps conserve precious habitats like forests. This means embracing approaches like enabling customers to bring their own containers to food counters, and offering more loose or bulk produce. Our recent polling showed 86% shoppers support the idea of supermarkets moving towards using more refillable and reusable packaging. Morrisons is showing the most promise on refillables so far, but there is huge scope – and an urgent need – for supermarkets to scale up on this.

Over THREE billion bags

The ten leading supermarkets are also producing 1.1 billion single-use bags, almost one billion bags for life and 1.2 billion plastic produce bags for fruit and vegetables. This is needless plastic and also something customers can opt out of. To encourage this, and carry forward the success of the 5p plastic carrier bag charge, supermarkets need to remove unnecessary plastic and make using no plastic the easy option by helping customers move to reusable bags.

Twenty twenty TWO

2022 is the earliest target a supermarket has set to eliminate the plastic in their stores that is not widely and easily recyclable. We think it should happen without delay and without exception as alternatives already exist. Given their current pledges to act on this problem plastic, most supermarkets will still be filled with plastics you can’t even recycle for the next seven years. They are even promoting this as a ‘flagship commitment’ to tackling plastic. But recycling alone won’t solve the ocean plastic crisis;  supermarkets must focus on reduction, and remove the most problematic types of plastic as a first step.

ONE thing that’s clear

UK supermarkets have a long way to go, but a year ago these scores would have been even lower – the action we’re taking together is working. Whether you’re one of the 740,000 people who has called on supermarkets to ditch throwaway plastic, exposed #pointlesspackaging and tagged your supermarket online, written to a supermarket CEO, or left unwanted plastic packaging at the till; supermarkets are really starting to feel the pressure. Plastic packaging has now become a red button issue for retailer reputations. The scores are disappointing, but the race is on. Supermarkets can still choose whether to lead the solution or stay part of the problem. 

Iceland 

Packaging on 1,400 product lines will be replaced, and the changes involve more than 250 suppliers. First to go will be plastic ready meal trays in favour of wood-pulp alternatives made in Britain. Plastic bags used for frozen vegetables and other food will then be dropped in favour of paper alternatives.
Iceland, which has already removed plastic disposable straws from its own range, is also working on alternatives for plastic bottles and milk cartons.

 

Tesco has launched a trial to remove some plastic wrapped fruit and vegetable products from its stores in a bid to cut down on packaging waste. 

Britain’s biggest retailer said the month-long pilot would be run at two of its Extra stores in Watford and Swindon. 

The trial will involve removing plastic packaging from 45 foods, including apples, onions, mushrooms, peppers, bananas and avocados, where loose alternatives are available. 

It follows Tesco’s announcement last year that it would ban hard-to-recycle plastic packaging by 2019 and make all packaging fully recyclable by 2025.