Big supermarkets are failing to reduce plastic use

Despite the public and political pressure, big supermarkets are failing to take responsibility for their plastic consumption. According to a recent Greenpeace report, supermarkets are stocking their shelves with over 810,000 tonnes of single-use plastic packaging every year.

Greenpeace also surveyed the UK’s top ten supermarkets and revealed that they are putting a collective 1.1bn single-use plastic bags, 1.2bn plastic produce bags for fruit and vegetables and 958m reusable “bags for life” into their stores in addition to their 810,000-tonne plastic footprint.

According to Elena Polisano – a Greenpeace oceans campaigner – “plastic pollution is now a full-blown environmental crisis and our supermarkets are right at the heart of it. Much of the throwaway plastic packaging filling up our homes comes from supermarket shelves, but the high-street giants are still not taking full responsibility for it.”

The findings of this report are somewhat disappointing considering the huge consumer effort to reduce our plastic consumption. Unless the supermarket giants stop producing single-use plastic at this unprecedented rate, we are fighting a losing battle.