It hasn’t been much COP26, but supermarkets can still help
The big environmental pow-wow in Glasgow began with low expectations and looks like ending with them too. COP26 (26th Conference of the Parties, quiz buffs) could not attract interest from top polluters China, with lip service from others like India and conscience-free Saudi Arabia.
At least ordinary citizens can do their bit. Unfortunately, anything we’re asked to do that causes minor inconvenience tends to be met with petulant resistance.
There are people who have virtually made a career from throwing tantrums about things that minorly inconvenience them; particularly those who were booted off Top Gear.
For some, it paralleled the worst excesses of the French Revolution when a 5p charge for plastic bags was introduced in 2015. But it’s been a success.
So why not go further and eliminate plastic packaging as much as possible? Some of it is blindingly obvious. It’s cheaper per-item to buy a plastic-encased six-pack of cans or bottles.
But why not just do away with the plastic, sell them loose and price accordingly at the checkout?
Lobbing six loose items into your bag rather than having them bound in fossil fuel is again, a minor inconvenience. What’s the problem?
It’s a similar story with fruit and vegetables. Plastic packaging is largely unnecessary for them too; and buying loose means buying the exact quantity you want, rather than taking home a large plastic bagful of taties – a third of which will be binned.
Blindingly obvious it may be, yet the supermarkets don’t seem overly keen, even though it’s within their gift.
Are supermarkets loath to cause even minor inconvenience to their customers to help the environment? They don’t seem to mind having two out of 20 checkouts unmanned, causing queues to stretch the length of the pet food aisle.
They persist with “super-fast” self checkouts that no person in a hurry would even consider using. These things should be consigned to Wellington Lane scrapyard (I would personally assist). Nor do they care about irritating millions with the lie that Christmas begins in October.
Those last issues are rectifiable, if trivial. Plastic use is anything but trivial, but barely the minimum is done about it.