Sick of Plastic campaign urges supermarkets to eliminate waste

Children all over the country are getting ready to send their letters to Santa. This year green-minded grown-ups got the chance to send wish lists too – to supermarkets.

The Sick of Plastic campaign, an initiative of Friends of the Earth, saw thousands of shoppers send a pre-printed card to their local supermarket with the word PLEASE printed in festive red.

It was an acrostic request to store managers to Price loose goods competitively to packaged ones, so that it is not cheaper buy a plastic bag of carrots than it is to buy the same amount loose, as is often the case.

The campaign wants stores to Lead the way by using reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging for own-branded goods, and to Ensure their suppliers do too.

The A stands for allowing shoppers to bring in their own containers and to Supply dry goods and cleaning products in bulk, to reduce packaging. Finally, the E stands for eliminating plastic bags for loose produce and breads.

That is something supermarket chain Lidl has been trialling in its Drogheda and Dundalk stores, swapping out plastic fruit and veg bags for reusable netting that shoppers can buy cheaply.

It’s just one of a number of steps the retailer has introduced to reduce plastic waste and support the “circular economy” – the continual use of resources to eliminate waste.

Lidl is removing the non-recyclable black plastic trays from its fresh meats and converting almost 500 tonnes of plastic into fully recyclable packaging. It recently became the retailer to introduce Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper packaging for its beef range.

“In 2019 we were Ireland’s first retailer to introduce in-store recycling stations for customers to facilitate the collection of packaging materials for customers,” says Owen Keogh, the company’s head of corporate social responsibility.

They’re the kind of steps all supermarkets are keen to take. It’s not so much that going green provides competitive advantage anymore, as that not doing so is increasingly seen as a business risk.

Biggest impact

Regulation is helping. The European Union wants all plastic packaging to be reusable or recyclable by 2030, something that make the biggest impact here – Ireland generates more plastic packaging per capita than any other EU member state.

The Government’s new waste action plan for the circular economy is showing the way, including a commitment to raising consumer awareness on the benefits of things such as reusable containers and working with retailers to encourage refills.

Momentum is building. Tesco Ireland removed 1.5 million pieces of plastic by scrapping plastic wrapped tinned multipacks of its own-label and branded goods this year. "We are working hard to remove all unnecessary and non-recyclable plastic from Tesco," says chief executive Kari Daniels, who says that the move will result in the elimination of 10 tonnes of plastic annually.

SuperValu owner Musgrave Group has committed to making 100 per cent of its own brand, fresh produce and in-store packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. It was the first Irish retailer to introduce 100 per cent reusable, compostable shopping bags and has compostable fruit and veg bags too.

Like all major retailers, it is working with suppliers to get them on board too, not just to reduce their packaging but to encourage packaging innovation, such as its eco-range of items such as reusable beeswax wraps to replace cling film and sandwich bags.

Sometimes the supermarkets are ahead of consumers when it comes to plastics. Lidl’s trialling of the sale of reusable nets for loose fruit and veg is a case in point, coming on foot of customer research that suggested it’s what people want.

“But sometimes there can be a difference between wants and behaviours,” says Keogh, suggesting it may take some time before shoppers appreciate that it’s not that the supermarket has just run out of bags, and go off looking for them.

No supermarket wants to be on any shopper’s naughty list but nevertheless, the store will persevere. “We are getting good feedback that this is the right thing to do,” he says.