Wrap debunks the myth that plastic is essential to preserving our food at home. In fact, it found that it’s not needed at all.
Indeed, by selling apples, bananas, broccoli, cucumbers and potatoes without packaging, as well as removing “best before” dates, the report estimates we could prevent more than 10,300 tonnes of plastic being discarded, while also saving more than about 100,000 tonnes of household food waste each year.
These astronomical savings can be achieved by enabling shoppers to buy only the amount of produce they actually need, and letting them use their own judgment to decide whether an item is good to eat, rather than taking the advice of a date label.
Simply put, consumers make sensible decisions that are good for the planet when they are sold the right thing. What our retailers have to do is stop selling the wrong thing. This report proves it.
But the stark reality is that retailers have been painfully slow to enact real change. The transition from packaged items to those sold loose or in refill stations is a case in point. While the UK’s supermarkets have begun to adopt refill schemes on a trial basis, offering store cupboard essentials such as rice, pasta and grains, cereals, dried fruit snacks and coffee, as well as washing detergents and other household items, these schemes have not grown fast enough.
We are lagging drastically behind other countries in this regard. In France, legislation will see at least 20 per cent of supermarkets’ floorspace dedicated to refillable options. In Spain, the sale of all fruit and vegetables in plastic will be prohibited by 2023.
With UK retailers sluggish or unwilling to budge on the use of plastic, we desperately need the government to step in and hold their toes to the fire with legislation which drives change. There can be no uncertainty: retailers should be held responsible for reducing their plastic use, and crucially, should bring in policy measures that will drive a change in habits up and down the country.
The key finding in Wrap’s report is that retailers have the power to change consumer behaviour simply by selling differently. It should not be the responsibility of the shopper to “choose” better; the supermarkets should simply never sell “worse”. They must stop passing the environmental buck to the shopper and act before legislation forces them to do so.
Sian Sutherland is co-founder of the campaign group A Plastic Planet
fter an 18-month-long project examining the link between food waste and plastic packaging, a new report from the charity Wrap debunks the myth that plastic is essential to preserving our food at home. In fact, it found that it’s not needed at all.
Indeed, by selling apples, bananas, broccoli, cucumbers and potatoes without packaging, as well as removing “best before” dates, the report estimates we could prevent more than 10,300 tonnes of plastic being discarded, while also saving more than about 100,000 tonnes of household food waste each year.
These astronomical savings can be achieved by enabling shoppers to buy only the amount of produce they actually need, and letting them use their own judgment to decide whether an item is good to eat, rather than taking the advice of a date label.
Simply put, consumers make sensible decisions that are good for the planet when they are sold the right thing. What our retailers have to do is stop selling the wrong thing. This report proves it.
But the stark reality is that retailers have been painfully slow to enact real change. The transition from packaged items to those sold loose or in refill stations is a case in point. While the UK’s supermarkets have begun to adopt refill schemes on a trial basis, offering store cupboard essentials such as rice, pasta and grains, cereals, dried fruit snacks and coffee, as well as washing detergents and other household items, these schemes have not grown fast enough.

We are lagging drastically behind other countries in this regard. In France, legislation will see at least 20 per cent of supermarkets’ floorspace dedicated to refillable options. In Spain, the sale of all fruit and vegetables in plastic will be prohibited by 2023.
With UK retailers sluggish or unwilling to budge on the use of plastic, we desperately need the government to step in and hold their toes to the fire with legislation which drives change. There can be no uncertainty: retailers should be held responsible for reducing their plastic use, and crucially, should bring in policy measures that will drive a change in habits up and down the country.
The key finding in Wrap’s report is that retailers have the power to change consumer behaviour simply by selling differently. It should not be the responsibility of the shopper to “choose” better; the supermarkets should simply never sell “worse”. They must stop passing the environmental buck to the shopper and act before legislation forces them to do so.
Sian Sutherland is co-founder of the campaign group A Plastic Planet