Supermarkets are using more plastic despite their promises to cut down the amount, according to new research.
The report, released by Greenpeace and Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), found that plastic use is still rising despite several supermarkets promising to reduce the use of plastic.
The report showed that supermarkets’ use of plastic packaging has risen from an estimated 886,000 tonnes in 2017 to 903,000 tonnes in 2018. The increase stemmed from sales of own-brand products.
Now campaigners are calling for a complete ban on bags or higher plastic bag charges.
EIA ocean campaigner, Juliet Phillips, told Raven news: “Supermarkets should ban plastic bags or raised in price, because as new figures reveal, a surge in the bags is fueling a rise in the plastic packaging footprint of leading supermarkets.”
Four supermarkets – Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco – all promised to cut down on using plastic packaging before 2025 in order to reduce plastic pollution.
For Christmas of 2019, Waitrose came up with five ways to tackle plastics and recycling: remove black plastic, go glitter free, and switch to recyclable packaging.
Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco – all promised to cut down on using plastic packaging before 2025 in order to reduce plastic pollution.
Sainsbury’s: halve plastic packaging by 2025
According to released information from Sainsbury’s, it currently uses almost 120,000 tonnes of plastic packaging and aims to reduce 60,000 tonnes before 2025. Sainsbury’s has come up with these solutions:
- switching to alternative materials
- using lighter-weight plastics
- introducing refillable packaging at scale
Recently, Sainsbury’s was ranked as third on plastic policies by GREENPEACE and Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We have updated the price of our Bags for Life to encourage customers to re-use their bags.”
Waitrose: eliminate unnecessary plastic by 2023
In 2019, Waitrose was ranked as first on plastic policies by GREENPEACE and EIA.. Waitrose aims to make all own-brand packaging reusable or made out of widely recyclable and home-compostable material by 2023.
According to Waitrose’s statement, they have already made over 85 percent of own-brand packaging recyclable, reusable or home-compostable. By the end of 2019, Waitrose aims to remove all hard-to-recycle black plastic from all own-brand products.
Asda: reach 30% recycled content in its plastic packaging by the end of 2020
Asda was ranked as ninth on plastic policies by GREENPEACE and EIA. Asda plans to reduce the total amount of plastic used in its own-brand packaging 15 percent by February 2021. Asda has removed more than 6,500 tonnes of plastic packaging from its own-brand range.
Asda aims to no longer use non-detectable black plastic and make own-brand packaging 100 per cent recyclable by 2025.
Tesco: remove one billion pieces of plastic from products by the end of 2020
Ranked as sixth in the report. Tesco announced it will remove one billion pieces of plastic from products in the beginning of November this year.
Tesco has formed a 4Rs plan (remove,reduce, reuse and recycle) to solve the problem of using plastic packaging in the business. In order to reach its goal of removing one billion pieces from own brand products, they decided to give away small plastic bags, plastic trays, secondary lid on products (such as cream, yoghurts and cereals), spork and straws and 200m pieces of plastic used to pack clothing and cards.
Tesco CEO, Dave Lewis announced:”over the next twelve months, we will remove one billion pieces of plastic, further reducing the environmental impact of the products we sell. By focusing on solutions that we can apply across all UK stores and supply chain.”