What are supermarkets doing to fight plastic?

Plastic waste is “one of the great environmental scourges of our time”.

These are the words of Prime Minister Theresa May, who has pledged to ban all avoidable plastic waste in the UK by 2042.

About 6.3bn tonnes of plastic waste had been generated globally by 2015, with almost 80% of it going to landfills or the natural environment.

And despite extending the 5p charge on single-use plastic bags, major retailers in England still sold 2.1 billion in the last financial year.

In a bid to tackle the problem, the PM has called on supermarkets to introduce “plastic-free” aisles and consider taxes and charges on single-use plastic items like food containers.

But organisations like Greenpeace UK are sceptical about the plan, citing Mrs May’s “vague aspirations” and calling for “concrete action”, such as a bottle deposit return scheme or a “latte levy” on disposable coffee cups.

So what are Britain’s 10 biggest supermarkets doing to combat the “scourge” of plastic?

It has also committed to remove all plastic cotton buds, a major source of ocean plastic pollution.

The supermarket recycles carrier bags, and has achieved a 33% reduction in its own brand-packaging since 2006.

Asda has reduced the weight of its packaging by 27% since 2007, partly by introducing “skin” packaging on some of its meat products.

Morrisons recycles its carrier bags and uses “returnable bins” for fish products to reduce the use of poly boxes.

It has also banned microbeads and plastic cotton buds in its own-brand cosmetic products, and plans to phase out drinking straws in its cafes.

It has not sent any waste directly to landfill since 2014, and recycles 100% of its cardboard and plastic.

Waitrose has thinned its prepared salad bags and reduced smoked salmon packaging by 50%.

It charges 30p or 40p for its food to be delivered or collected in plastic bags.

Despite plastic bag charging, Waitrose says it supplied 63 million bags in England from April 2016 to April 2017.

It plans to make its own-label packaging widely recyclable, reusable or home compostable by 2025.

Lidl says it is in the process of setting targets for plastic waste.

It removed microbeads from all its cosmetic and household products last year, and has also committed to switching to biodegradable cotton buds.

For the last 24 years it has charged for plastic carrier bags, and it stopped selling single-use bags last year.

Marks & Spencer says that more than 90% of all its UK packaging is recyclable, and less than 1% (by weight) of all its packaging can be traced back to polystyrene.

It is also looking at using plastics made from plant-based oils.

Louise Edge, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said that while initiatives like these were good, “more radical and comprehensive policies” were needed to tackle the plastic waste crisis.

“We need to see supermarkets making firm commitments to move away from using disposable plastic packaging altogether, starting with going plastic free in their own brands.”

Businesses should be using “reusable containers wherever possible”, she said, and investment in research and development was “vital” to finding less problematic packaging materials.

Supermarkets also needed to avoid solving one problem by causing another, such as reducing the weight of packaging by replacing glass with plastic, she said.

But the most important step for retailers was to make an open commitment to reducing the use of resources and carbon emissions.

“None of these processes will be reliable without significantly increased transparency,” she added.

Greenpeace UK suggests retailers should:

A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was committed to stemming the damage caused by plastic waste and had made great progress in boosting recycling rates.

“We are encouraged by industry action to reduce plastic and packaging waste and look forward to seeing others following its lead,” it said.

Written and researched by Becca Meier. Infographic by Joy Roxas.