GREENPEACE volunteers from across the city handed in a letter to Worcester’s ASDA store bosses to raise their concerns over the retail giant’s approach to single-use plastic packaging.
Local members gathered in St Martin’s Quarter to make their voice heard over how single-use plastic packaging is a major contributor to the plastic pollution which is having a devastating impact on rivers and oceans.
According to the group, UK supermarkets generate more than 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste every year and a recent survey of supermarket plastic use by Greenpeace UK and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) revealed despite their huge plastic footprint, half of the supermarkets have no specific targets to reduce plastic packaging.
Supermarkets with plans to reduce use by five per cent are moving at such a pace that it would take them 20 years to completely rid their shelves of throwaway plastic, according to the campaign group.
John Allen, a volunteer with the Worcester local Greenpeace group, said: “I want to recycle all my rubbish and single use plastic I can’t recycle at home. For example, the plastic around my peppers is no use to me. I feel the store should take responsibility for this.”
Asda is ranked sixth in the league table published as part of the survey and has set a ten per cent plastic reduction target for own-brand packaging, equating to five per cent per year.
Sainsbury’s is ranked tenth, the bottom of the league table published as part of the survey and has no specific targets to reduce plastic packaging according to Greenpeace while Tesco finished fifth on the list, again with no plan to reduce plastic packaging.
“That’s why 800,000 people have signed Greenpeace’s petition calling on supermarkets to ditch single use plastic,” John added.
Visit www.greenpeace.org.uk/plastic-free-supermarkets for more.
