Agreement could be better to achieve aim than a law – Co-op
MAJOR supermarkets have welcomed moves to tackle plastic bag usage and highlighted steps already being taken to address the issue.
Mark Cox, chief operating officer of the Channel Islands Co-operative Society, also warned against unintended consequences of any new legislation.
‘As a community-owned organisation we recognise that our members are very interested in protecting the beautiful environment in which we live,’ he said.
‘We also understand that there is a lot of public concern over the use of plastic bags and packaging. Members will already be aware that we have removed single-use carrier bags from all of our stores, which has seen a positive reduction in the number of carrier bags we are issuing.
‘We have also established a working party to review all packaging and are working with local suppliers and are auditing all packaging, taking steps to reduce where possible and ensuring at the very least that packaging can be reused or recycled.’
On Twitter, he also said: ‘Delighted to support this @CI_Coop have already removed single-use carrier bags. Legislation will need to be mindful of unintended consequences if not worded correctly – as with charging for bags, could we not achieve same aim with agreement rather than legislation?’
In response, Environment & Infrastructure president Barry Brehaut said: ‘Agree, there is clearly a great deal of goodwill out there in the community. We need to work with retailers to ensure any proposals are workable.’
A spokesman for SandpiperCI said its Guernsey franchises, Morrisons and Iceland, welcomed any initiatives to reduce the use of plastics.
Morrisons recently announced it would begin to offer paper carrier bags as part of its continuing drive to remove unnecessary plastic from its stores.
Iceland has committed to become the first major retailer globally to eliminate all plastic packaging from all of its own-brand products by the end of 2023. That process had already started and Iceland is challenging itself to complete it within the next five years.
A Waitrose & Partners spokesman said: ‘Waitrose & Partners does not offer single-use carrier bags in our branches.
‘Instead we sell bags for life for 10p and, once worn out, they can be returned to a branch and replaced free of charge. The returned bags are then sent off to be recycled.
‘We have also replaced fruit and vegetable bags with a home compostable alternative, saving 71m. plastic bags a year across all of our branches.’
