Sunday, June 23, 2019
Why the supermarkets need to get onboard with saving our planet
As a local councillor I spend a disproportionate amount of my time dealing with recycling issues, in particular the council's policy on what plastic it is prepared to accept in the fortnightly collections.
However, the real problem lies not with the council but with the manufacturers and the supermarkets who, for all their rhetoric about saving the planet, are actually making it more difficult for us to act in an environmentally conscious way.
The Independent reports that half of packaging used by major UK supermarkets cannot be recycled easily. This makes it difficult for customers who wish to dispose of their waste correctly and increases the chance of it ending up in landfill:
For the study, by consumer charity Which?, researchers analysed the packaging of 46 popular items from supermarkets including Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Marks & Spencer and Tesco.
They looked at the component parts of the packaging and assessed whether each piece could be easily recycled.
According to Which?, products are deemed easy to recycle if they can be placed in household recycling and picked up by the council.
Their findings showed that 52 per cent of packaging met these requirements – including pieces with cardboard, glass and plastic.
But 42 per cent of the total supermarket packaging was found to be labelled either incorrectly or not at all.
Despite Morrisons recently announcing it will sell 20p paper carrier bags in all stores to reduce plastic waste, the supermarket was said to be the worst offender among those assessed.
The research showed that many of its own-brand items were packaged in non-recyclable plastic film. As a result, 61 per cent of its packaging is not easily recyclable, researchers say.
Meanwhile, 58 per cent of the packaging materials used by Co-op were also not widely recyclable. The study also showed that 48 per cent of the packaging in most supermarkets including Asda, Lidl, Ocado, and Sainsbury’s was not recyclable.
Tesco and Waitrose were named the best supermarkets for recyclable packaging, with just 40 per cent found not to be easily recycled.
When it came to labelling, Iceland was found to be the worst among the supermarkets, with only two in five (38 per cent) pieces of packaging correctly labelled.
That said, eight in 10 (78 per cent) of Asda’s products were found to be correctly labelled.
It is hard to disagree with Which! that in order to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill, the government should make labelling “mandatory, simple and clear", but there also needs to be some legislation to reduce packaging overall. We are wasting so much of the planet's resources in marketing. That has to stop.
However, the real problem lies not with the council but with the manufacturers and the supermarkets who, for all their rhetoric about saving the planet, are actually making it more difficult for us to act in an environmentally conscious way.
The Independent reports that half of packaging used by major UK supermarkets cannot be recycled easily. This makes it difficult for customers who wish to dispose of their waste correctly and increases the chance of it ending up in landfill:
For the study, by consumer charity Which?, researchers analysed the packaging of 46 popular items from supermarkets including Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Marks & Spencer and Tesco.
They looked at the component parts of the packaging and assessed whether each piece could be easily recycled.
According to Which?, products are deemed easy to recycle if they can be placed in household recycling and picked up by the council.
Their findings showed that 52 per cent of packaging met these requirements – including pieces with cardboard, glass and plastic.
But 42 per cent of the total supermarket packaging was found to be labelled either incorrectly or not at all.
Despite Morrisons recently announcing it will sell 20p paper carrier bags in all stores to reduce plastic waste, the supermarket was said to be the worst offender among those assessed.
The research showed that many of its own-brand items were packaged in non-recyclable plastic film. As a result, 61 per cent of its packaging is not easily recyclable, researchers say.
Meanwhile, 58 per cent of the packaging materials used by Co-op were also not widely recyclable. The study also showed that 48 per cent of the packaging in most supermarkets including Asda, Lidl, Ocado, and Sainsbury’s was not recyclable.
Tesco and Waitrose were named the best supermarkets for recyclable packaging, with just 40 per cent found not to be easily recycled.
When it came to labelling, Iceland was found to be the worst among the supermarkets, with only two in five (38 per cent) pieces of packaging correctly labelled.
That said, eight in 10 (78 per cent) of Asda’s products were found to be correctly labelled.
It is hard to disagree with Which! that in order to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill, the government should make labelling “mandatory, simple and clear", but there also needs to be some legislation to reduce packaging overall. We are wasting so much of the planet's resources in marketing. That has to stop.
