FUELLING THE TIDE OF PLASTIC POLLUTION
Supermarkets are the worst some of offenders but an initiative at tills today is just the start of the public backlash
DESPITE their determined pledges to help turn the tide on plastic, all of our major supermarkets are guilty of fuelling a plastic Armageddon — by selling fruit and vegetables in wrapping that cannot be recycled.
The Irish Daily Mail recently launched its Turn The Tide On Plastic campaign, in a bid to stop the tsunami of toxic waste that is choking our seas and killing our marine life.
Everyone agrees that central to saving our planet is cutting out the mountains of unnecessary packaging on our fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets aren’t making it easy.
The fact is, families simply cannot go plasticfree if supermarkets suffocate every piece of fresh fruit in reams of unnecessary wrapping. The Irish Daily Mail did a supermarket sweep of the fruit and vegetable aisles in all of our major supermarkets — and the trolley haul was deeply troubling.
The snapshot survey confirms it’s virtually impossible to buy a week’s shop of fruit and vegetables without coming home with a mountain of plastic, destined for the bin, where we pay for it on the double.
It begs the question: why can’t we buy our fruit and vegetables, which already come in naturally protective skins, loose in our aisles?
Last July in the Dáil, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar lambasted supermarkets for foisting plastic on shoppers and revealed his plan for massive skips to be installed outside supermarkets leaving store owners — and not householders — to pick up the tab for needless packaging on groceries.
He said at the time: ‘The minister, Denis Naughten, is looking at introducing large-scale recycling bins outside supermarkets to reduce waste at source. This is in order that people who buy things in a supermarket would be able to dispose of the packaging inside or outside.’
Almost a year on, Minister Naughten is still dragging his feet.
So today, thousands of shoppers around the country are saying enough is enough at supermarket tills around the country, as thousands of customers join the ‘Shop and Drop’ day of action.
Fed up with having needless, toxic, unrecyclable packaging foisted upon them, shoppers are revolting by ditching the unnecessary wrappers at the tills and passing the plastic parcel back to the supermarkets, so they can deal with it.
The action is being coordinated by Friends of the Earth and VOICE Ireland — backer of the Irish Daily Mail’s Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign — with hundreds of volunteers leading teams of fed-up shoppers. The Shop and Drop is simple — shop as normal at your local supermarket then at the checkout, remove excess plastic packaging and leave it with the cashier. Volunteers will arm shoppers with ‘Sick of Plastic’ postcards, outlining six ways shops can reduce plastic, to sign and hand in at the tills, along with excess plastic packaging.
Of course, stores won’t be caught completely off-guard, with organisers giving them more than a month’s notice in which to prepare. So, how are they responding?
Aldi has confirmed it will have recycling bins for shoppers to put their unwanted packaging.
Tesco said: ‘We welcome our customer’s feedback and we will have recycling bins available in stores to accept plastic packaging customers want to return to us.’
SuperValu plans to do the same, saying: ‘Many of our stores will accept packaging for recycling during tomorrow’s plastics protest and we advise SuperValu customers to contact their local SuperValu stores directly.’
Oisin Coghlan, Friends of the Earth director, says: ‘We have never had a public response like this before. It’s a wave of public frustration with plastic and enthusiasm for the chance to do something about it. We don’t see our day of action as a confrontation but a chance for the public to express their preference.’
Today’s ‘shopper power’ is one way of throwing off our toxic reputation in Europe. A recent Eurostat report named us as the biggest producer of plastic waste in the EU, with every one of us generating a shocking 61kg each year. China — which used to take in 95% of Ireland’s plastic waste — shut its doors to imports from January 1, pushing the plastic situation here to crisis point.
An incredible eight million tonnes of plastic rubbish is dumped into Irish waters every year, with scientists at NUI Galway revealing recently that 73% of deep water fish living in the north-west Atlantic Ocean had eaten plastics — among the highest plastic poisoning of fish in the world.
Our supermarket sweep also uncovered how the cost of this needless packaging is being passed on to the consumer. In Tesco loose avocados were being sold for 69c each, but two plastic-packaged avocados cost €1.99, a staggering 30c extra each.
Right now, labels on fruit and vegetables in our supermarkets are confusing. While some products carry the admission ‘not currently recycled’, others merely direct shoppers to check with their local recycling centre for information while much of the own-brand fresh produce gives no information whatsoever.
In Tesco we’re told where the bags of apples, parsnips, cauliflowers and punnets of closed cup mushrooms are packed, but there’s no indication at all whether the packaging is recyclable. In Lidl there’s no clue on the recyclability of the plastic wrappers around many items including its broccoli, pears, parsnips, courgettes, tomatoes and ginger.
Although stores are encouraged to label packaging, it is not a legal requirement.
Also at Tesco, a bunch of organic carrots, covered in soil and complete with their leafy green heads, were placed in a vast plastic bag, listed as ‘not currently recyclable’. A small sweetheart cabbage came wrapped in a plastic bag big enough to hold five times the amount.
Some produce with double packaging is a real headache for shoppers. At Aldi, kiwis and avocados come in plastic not fit for recycling but shoppers are told to check with their councils on whether punnets are recycled. This is because some plastic wrappers are PE based (unrecyclable) but others are PP based (recyclable). When these two materials are mixed together, they are difficult to separate and recycle.
As well as ditching their plastic tomorrow, shoppers are also calling for measures to address plastic pollution, including a deposit and return scheme on plastic bottles and cans, a levy on single-use plastic items and a ban on micro-plastics in cosmetics and personal care products.
When contacted by the Irish Daily Mail in February, there were signals environment minister Denis Naughten was on the cusp of a U-turn on the issue of a bottle deposit and return scheme for plastic, glass and aluminium — hugely successful in many EU countries.
He said although ‘not convinced’ on the merits of such a scheme, he ‘was not averse to considering a review’ of the idea, now being looked at in the Dáil as part of the Green Party’s 2017 Waste Reduction Bill. But nothing has been done since.
Oisin Coghlan of Friends of the Earth says: ‘We all try our best to recycle but there’s more and more
packaging coming on the market and we’re left to deal with it as consumers.I’ve never worked on an issue where the public reaction has been so strong. Under EU law it’s the supermarket’s responsibility but they’ve got around this by paying Repak. The upshot of that is it’s foisted on us, and we are made responsible and have to spend time, energy and guilt worrying about it. All these years after our pioneering plastic bag levy, we’re wrapping everything to within an inch of its life and carting home more plastic than ever.’
In fairness to retailers, some moves are being made to address the issue. Lidl, the Green Retailer of the Year, has responded to our campaign by stating it is trialling the introduction of 11 additional loose options, bringing their overall loose lines to around 25% of the range — ‘a direct response to growing consumer demand for loose fruit and vegetables’. It promises by 2022, it will reduce plastic packaging volumes by 20%, by 2025, 100% of own-brand packaging will be widely recyclable, reusable, refillable or renewable and by 2025, 50% of material used in own-brand packaging will come from recycled materials. It also plans to eradicate microbeads from cosmetic and household products.
A Tesco spokesman vowed all packaging would be fully recyclable or compostable by 2025 and said it’s an active member of the Goverment’s Retail Action Group.
Aldi confirmed its stores ‘have made provisions to facilitate customers’ taking part in today’s protest, adding: ‘We have committed to ensuring that 100% of our own label packaging will be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022, and achieving a 50% reduction in packaging across our own-label products by 2025.’
SuperValu also announced this week it would offer compostable bags for all loose fruit and vegetables. ‘This is part of a broader strategy to reduce packaging and make 100% of our own brand and fresh produce packaging become recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025,’ said a spokesman, who added that it is a Repak member and works with the Waste Resources Action Programme.
However, he said they also had to be mindful of the role packaging plays, eg, protecting the integrity of the organic produce supply line and keeping some produce fresh.
But Oisin Coghlan says the stores’ plans are not ambitious or concrete enough.
‘Supermarkets need to measure and publish exactly how much packaging they are using in a year and how much they are reducing it the following year — hard facts. We know these things take a while but we need to see more concrete plans and more concrete targets than 2025. If they’re serious, they need to apply their minds to reducing packaging with the same rigour and dedication they show for getting us to part with our money. Enough platitudes — we want planned and measured action.’
Irish retailers are currently subject to a producer responsibility compliance scheme, operated by Repak. Each of its 2,350 members place at least ten tonnes of packaging on to the Irish market each year and are charged on a ‘pay-asyou-produce’ basis.
Fees paid subsidise the collection and recovery of packaging through firms like Panda and Greenstar.
We quizzed Repak on whether it supported our push for more ‘loose’ produce and ‘plastic-free aisles’ to cut down on waste and to explain the barriers. A spokesman told us plastic helped with food hygiene and prolonged shelf life but added: ‘We understand consumers’ frustration with plastic packaging and a pillar of the waste hierarchy is to reduce packaging. Manufacturers of packaging need to rethink the materials they are using on their products to make sure they are readily recyclable.’
After today’s revolution in the aisles, they may have no choice.