Plastic packaging plea to retailers

Retailers should report on their plastic packaging as part of efforts to reduce waste and pollution, it has been urged.

The call came as supermarket Iceland published its plastic footprint of more than 32,000 tonnes at its UK and international operations in 2019.

The supermarket has joined with campaign groups Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, A Plastic Planet and Surfers Against Sewage to call for greater transparency from other retailers and businesses over their plastic use.

They also want to see the government enforce mandatory reporting on plastic packaging and targets in the Environment Bill to reduce plastic pollution.

Iceland, which has a commitment to eliminate all plastic packaging from its own label products by 2023, said it removed 3,794 tonnes out of the 13,000 tonnes the business was using in January 2018 by the end of 2019 – a 29% cut.

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said: “Our message is clear. Without transparency, and governmentenforced reduction targets, we will not be able to judge whether business actions are delivering real progress.

“We have a huge challenge ahead that can only be solved by businesses and policy makers working together, in tandem with fully informed consumers sharing a completely clear picture of both the country and individual businesses’ total plastic packaging.

“Increased recycling is important but won’t solve the issue on its own.

“Regulated commitments to reduce plastic pollution are also vital if we are to deliver positive progress in the face of the sheer scale of plastic making its way into the environment.”

The figures released include Iceland’s primary packaging and the packaging used to deliver food to its stores, alongside the packaging for the brands it sells.

Its total plastic footprint for UK and international operations includes more than 1.8 billion items of packaging and almost 93 million bottles.

Tony Bosworth, of Friends of the Earth, said :“Many corporate ambitions for reducing plastic waste may sound impressive, but unless they are clear about how much they’re responsible for in the first place, these can be meaningless.”