Tesco, Morrisons and all the other major UK supermarkets are aiming to display food free from any plastic package by 2023. What have they done so far? And how far is the target?
I am in a supermarket doing my shopping and I feel hungry so I decide to buy a croissant. I put it in a plastic bag, I pay for it and, as soon as I’m out, I remove it from the plastic bag to eat it. Now, both the croissant and the plastic bag served their purpose. But while the croissant is gone, the plastic bag I used for about 30 seconds is still in my hands and it will probably stick around for another five or six centuries.
In the UK, supermarkets contribute over 810,000 tonnes of plastic every year, representing a huge proportion of the total amount flooding onto the UK market, with most of the plastic produced even before we place an item in our basket.
Behind the scenes, plastic is a protagonist in all grocery supply chain: from the fields of plastic polytunnels used in greenhouses to packaging used in transportation. This is in addition to over 1.1 billion single-use bags and 1.2 billion plastic produce bags for bakery, vegetables and fruit. All of this plastic comes at a huge environmental and social cost which is still hardly considered as a serious matter.
Each year, according to Greenpeace UK, up to 12 million tonnes of plastic are thrown into the ocean, including microplastic (5mm in size plastic pieces) which have been found in all marine habitats, and it is now part of our food chain.
The Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace UK surveyed 10 UK supermarkets and six grocery convenience store chains to date on how they are addressing plastic pollution.
Surprisingly, budget supermarkets such as Iceland and Morrisons turned out to be the most ambitious in committing to eliminate plastic from their shelves in the next few years.
Iceland, the UK’s leader in frozen plastic-packed food, is aiming to go plastic-free by 2023 and has already reduced plastic in new food by 85%.
Its major aim is to replace all black plastic ready meal trays with paper-based aluminum, removing more than 100 million plastic trays each year and so reducing its plastic usage by 2,000 tonnes. Furthermore, Iceland suppliers have been encouraged to find plastic-free alternatives to their new products. For example by introducing paper bags with a tracing paper window, cotton and cellulose nets, and compostable punnets.
Waitrose has already implemented a series of strategies to reduce drastically the amount of plastic displayed on its shelves. These include eliminating unnecessary plastic in products that are mostly used by its customers, such as carrier bags, coffee cups, straws and cutlery. Furthermore, customers are constantly encouraged to bring their own reusable containers to take home cold products.
Thanks to these initiatives, Waitrose has managed to cut its plastic production by almost 2,000 tonnes in the past year and now the supermarket is aiming to remove all own-label black plastic by the end of 2019.
Sinead Johnson has been a loyal Waitrose customer for more than 20 years. She says that despite having the awareness of the damage caused by plastic and the use of plastic bags, she has always struggled to carry a non-plastic bag for shopping.
"One day I walked into Waitrose and to my surprise all the plastic bags were gone," Johnson says. "This annoyed me especially that I had to buy a four pounds bag to carry my shopping home."
She also recalls that the following days she forgot the new bag at home and had to buy another one, while once she had to go home first to fetch the new bag before going shopping instead of going straight from work.
"I was frustrated that Waitrose would not give the option to use plastic bags to people that, like me, would usually forget to bring a non-plastic one," she says.
"However, after a while, I started to remember to carry the bag and since then bought another three to keep in my hand bag. Waitrose has found the best way to convert me to non-plastic bags, by making me learn the hard way."
Supermarkets seem to be committed to applying a series of reforms to tackle plastic pollution. According to Colin Sneath, entrepreneur and founder of "A Day's Walk", a UK-based plastic-free grocery business, environmental impact is at the bottom of supermarkets' core business agenda.
"Plastic pollution is viewed as a public perception to be managed rather than a core priority for the business," Sneath says.
"We will continue to see 'high profile initiatives' as part of the management of public perception, but the truth is that until there is a clear long term commercial impact, supermarkets will move as slowly as public opinion and action will allow," he says. "They will spend more resources in maintaining the good facade than actually replacing plastic."
Observing such a decrease in tonnes of plastic produced, it looks like the target has almost been hit, but in fact, plastic-free shelves still represent a far reality.
According to Greenpeace UK, there are still a relevant number of supermarkets whose progress remains very minimal. Tesco and Sainsbury's, for instance, have been ranked among the worst in class of all major UK supermarkets for cutting plastic packaging. Greenpeace UK is urging them to focus their targets on eliminating plastic rather than recycling it.
Sainsbury's and other major UK supermarkets have recently signed to the UK Plastic Pact which aims to remove non-recyclable plastic packaging by as late as 2025. However, the voluntary targets do not necessarily entail an overall plastics reduction. Many retailers have additional goals to eliminate problematic plastics but Sainsbury’s came up with none.
Ellie Jackson has written a series of books called "Wild Tribe Heroes" to help educate children about the impact of plastics on ocean ecosystems. She believes supermarkets have not yet clear ideas about reducing plastic, neither recycling it, making it compostable or biodegradable. "Whichever the answer is," Jackson says, "it's ultimately not the answer in long term."
"We need technology to catch up and come up with a really suitable alternative to plastic," she says. "However, we need every member of our society to make a difference: from government, manufacturers, retailers and consumers and, most of all, we need to educate people from a very early age. By injecting the children's enthusiasm and concern, they can in turn inspire the adults."