Letter to the Evening Post - Supermarkets and excess packaging (Paul Harrod)

Letter to the Evening Post - Supermarkets and excess packaging

December 12, 2007 12:00 AM

Gil Osman is entirely right to highlight the amount of food that supermarkets waste when it could be recycled. (EP letters 12th Dec).

There is also a pressing need for supermarkets to curb excess packaging. Individual bananas shrink-wrapped on a plastic tray are perhaps the worst examples I have seen. A Liberal Democrat MP has proposed a bill in Parliament that would make it the responsibility of major retailers to dispose of the packaging waste that they themselves generate. This is an ideal solution as it provides supermarket with a real incentive to consider how much plastic or cardboard is strictly necessary.

We can all vote with our feet and reward shops and supermarkets that reduce their packaging by taking our business there, but sometimes appropriate legislation can speed things up dramatically. Despite encouraging progress made by major supermarkets to cut their carbon emissions far more radical action is needed to reduce the amount of plastic and packaging that their customers are forced to deal with as a consequence of shopping with them.