Supermarkets failing in war on plastic waste

Supermarket plastic has risen to more than 900,000 tonnes – despite retailers making public commitments to cut down their plastic packaging.

A report from the Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace, “Checking out on plastics II: Breakthroughs and backtracking from supermarkets”, claims that seven out of the top 10 UK supermarkets had actually increased their plastic footprint. Only Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s had achieved marginal reductions.

The report found that only Tesco had given suppliers an ultimatum to cut excessive plastic or face products being delisted, and campaigners urge others to follow suit.

Another factor in rising plastic was that supermarkets which saw their sales grow last year sold more plastic too.

EIA ocean campaigner Juliet Phillips said: “It’s shocking to see that despite unprecedented awareness of the pollution crisis, the amount of single-use plastic used by the UK’S biggest supermarkets has actually increased in the past year.

“Our survey shows that grocery retailers need to tighten up targets to drive real reductions in single-use packaging and items.”