Shops put on the spot over recycling, plastic

Danielle Bennett sent letters recently to three island supermarkets she frequently uses to find out more about their recycling and plastic policies.

Letters were sent to Alliance, the Co-op on the Bridge and Waitrose at Admiral Park.

Mrs Bennett said she was interested to hear what the supermarkets would have to say.

‘I think it’s all topical, with carbon neutral aims, anti-plastic campaigns and Greta [Thunberg] who led to the Grammar School students to organise their event.

‘We’re paying to put black bags out and 90% of what’s in them is thin plastic,’ she said.

Mrs Bennett wondered why we still have non-recyclable plastic.

She sent the letters after talking to friends and family.

‘I thought, well I’m interested to find out and to have it as a public dialogue. Individuals should be working together collectively to find the best options,’ she said.

Mrs Bennett said although growing your own vegetables was an option, it was not always easy to do and she was aware there was a farmers’ market at weekends but she was unable to go when it was on.

‘For me, my boys play football on a Saturday morning so I’m never able to go.

‘There’s not many places people can go to get local veg,’ she said.

One of Mrs Bennett’s suggestions was for fruit and vegetable sections of supermarkets to have a French market feel with produce free from plastic and more encouragement for shoppers to bring their own baskets.

Suggestions included an employee on hand to help with weighing items.

Mrs Bennett now uses a basket herself, sticking weighing labels to a cereal box to be scanned.

‘To change public behaviour it’s got to be as easy as possible or people won’t do it,’ she said.

Mrs Bennett also suggested bring-your-own containers could be used for meat, fish and cheese to reduce the amount of plastic packaging.

Other packaging suggestions included fresh bread in paper rather than plastic bags and the use of non-recyclable plastic bags for fruit and vegetable weighing.

Mrs Bennett also questioned double-wrapped items.

‘Things such as ready-to-eat fruit, tins and tissue boxes are often wrapped in additional plastic with shoppers only receiving the benefit of the offer if they take the wrapped item rather than the same quantity loose.

‘Potatoes in a bag can be £1.50, but £4 or £5 loose, why I don’t understand,’ said Mrs Bennett.

She hoped by being proactive about plastic packaging choices herself, others will be encouraged to make changes to their shopping habits too.

Mrs Bennett is not the only one trying to change plastic shopping practices as Plastic Free Guernsey has started a petition to the States on www.change.org to ban all plastic carrier bags on island.

Almost 500 have signed the petition and those wishing to support the initiative can go to www.change.org and search Ban Plastic Carrier Bags in Guernsey.

The responses

Alliance

ANNABEL BARNES, of Alliance marketing, said on behalf of the company that it tries to respond to customer comments whether in store, through social media or by mail and is constantly looking for ways to reduce its plastic usage, working closely with suppliers to make changes wherever possible.

‘We have introduced specific ranges such as Tesco Eco Active, re-usuable cups and loose fruit and veg.

‘We have also actioned other items such as removing single use bags, selling re-usable bags and making boxes available at the check-outs,’ she said.

Ms Barnes said they valued the feedback from Mrs Bennett and would do their best to keep the public informed of future changes and developments.

Channel Islands Co-op

A CHANNEL Islands Co-operative Society spokesman highlighted that in the case of plastic wrapping this was often done because convenience was something shoppers wanted, with market research pointing to customers shopping more frequently and with smaller basket sizes, termed food to go or convenience shopping.

In these convenience stores, customers want a fast and convenient shop, therefore more fruit and vegetables are wrapped for convenience.

‘If you go into the larger stores, there is less wrapped fruit and veg and more loose to buy.

‘It is all about giving our customers options and if our customers continue to buy in this way we have a responsibility to meet their demands,’ he said.

However, the spokesman said convenience shopping did not mean the company did not have a responsibility also to improve packaging on pre-packed items.

Regarding bread, the Co-op has recently had an audit with its local packaging company and shoppers will notice less in-store baked goods are wrapped.

The Co-op is also working through the last of its single use produce bags and once they are used up will be introducing biodegradable ones after research showed these to be more environmentally friendly than paper bags.

Health and safety regulations prevent the Co-op from offering a provision for customers to bring their own Tupperware to use due to the risk of cross-contamination.

More information on plastic policies at the Co-op can be found at https://coop.uk/2UyCM4e.

Waitrose & Partners

PAULA PROTHEROE, branch manager of Waitrose and Partners Admiral Park, said reducing plastic was a company priority.

‘Even though we have a long way to go, we are making good progress.

‘Last year we brought forward our target to make all our own-brand packaging 100% re-usable, home compostable or easily recyclable from 2025 to 2023.

‘We will remove black plastic, which is difficult to recycle, entirely by the end of 2019, we have already removed it from on our fresh meat, fish, poultry, fruit and veg, amounting to a reduction of over 1,300 tonnes of black plastic per year.

‘We have also recently dispensed with black plastic packaging altogether from all fresh fruit and vegetables produced by Channel Island farmers,’ she said.

More information on plastic policies at Waitrose can be found by Google searching the company’s blog, Packaging At Waitrose.