Supermarkets should pay tax on packaging ...

[QueenofEsgaroth]

or something to dissuade them from using so much.

Average shop just arrived from tesco delivery, I always ask for no carrier bags since the delivery driver can wheel the trolley right up to my kitchen table to empty the crates.

There are carrier bags for cat food, nuts/seeds, fabric conditioner, meat x 2 so that's five carrier bags.

There are plastic bags on potatoes, carrots, onions, pears, lettuce, mango, tomatoes and styrofoam trays with plastic wrap on apples.

This leaves me with a full plastic carrier bag of plastic, what a ridiculous waste. Also all the plastic wrapped veg is sweaty and stinky so won't last as long as it would if it had come in a paper bag.

Why is there so much packaging? Years of recycling promotion have done nothing and to me it seems that the packaging used is increasing not decreasing so what would solve this?

I recycle but think more should be done to reduce the need to recycle in the first place, less plastics etc. I have a friend who has started unpacking her fruit and veg at the till to leave the packaging at the supermarket and am starting to think maybe that is the way forward. Maybe I should take this packaging to the shop and give them it back?

Something needs to change, the 5p bag law in Scotland has made a difference to consumers requesting bags, we need a similar plan to assist supermarkets to use less packaging. AIBU?

This is one of my bug bears.. I'm happy to recycle, always have been but it does seem as if the issue of reducing waste is passed on to us, the consumer when manufacturers, supermarkets & Amazon (more so than other shops I've noticed) don't seem to be under any pressure to reduce ridiculous excess wrapping. Surely manufacturers can be made to think logically about packaging and how to reduce it?

A lot of product packaging is to protect the food in transit from manufacturer to shopfloor.

Mainly to do with the rough and tumble of transport, but also because unfortunately 'we' desire food that has not been touched by bug or bacteria from the moment it is grown/harvested/packed, till the moment we grab it off the shelf. Heaven forfend an newly picked apple should get rained on, for example.

If someone wants a mango, why not pick it from the store box and put it in a paper bag instead of a plastic one? Why need a bag at all? I would not put loose fruit and veg in a plastic bag if collecting it from the shop. It gets washed before you eat it anyway and plastic bags don't prevent bruising!

I actually prefer my carrots and potatoes fresh from the ground and a bit muddy than washed in god knows what and in a plastic bag mouldering. These vegetables like the dark so a mud coating in a paper bag is an excellent preservative method.

@QueenofEsgaroth If someone wants a mango, why not pick it from the store box and put it in a paper bag instead of a plastic one? Why need a bag at all? I would not put loose fruit and veg in a plastic bag if collecting it from the shop. It gets washed before you eat it anyway and plastic bags don't prevent bruising!

Well yeah I am totally with you on that! I despair when I see people putting (say) a banana in a plastic bag, that they are about to eat for their lunch. So mindless, twice over!

Ditto things like loo rolls and dog biscuits which usually come in packaging which has its own handle! (or just doesn't need bagging anyway)

I don't see the need why they need to shrink wrap multipacks of cans of beans, soup etc. There's a lot of unnecessary plastic there.

Just about every shop in the land apart from very small ones that don't generally do offers anyway has a till that is clever enough to charge a certain price if you buy 1, 4, 6 etc.

Absolutely. A lot of packaging is so unnecessary. I'd also like to see a return to "refillable" containers. E.g. You want Rice Krispies, you take your big plastic tub to Tesco where there's a dispenser to fill it up (and charge per gram). Could work with lots of things, and presumably would be cheaper for lots of things too (obviously some things have to be packaged to survive transit).

I think part of the problem would be that the supermarkets would pass on any additional costs to the customer, but maybe some kind of tax on non-reuseable packaging would even things out.

Totally agree.

And I think the plastic bag tax is about making money, not saving the environment. I mean how hard would it be just to ban plastic bags totally? Provide paper bags and people could buy cloth reusable bags. As happened before plastic bags ever came on the scene...

Agree totally. I once complained that the woman on the checkout kept putting my fruit and veg in bags. A bunch of bananas really doesn't need a bag!
I've noticed an advantage of the discount stores is slightly less packaging. Eg. Big pot of Aldi yoghurt just covered with foil instead of foil and a plastic lid like the other brands.

I do agree however there are shops where you can buy 'rice crispies' like that, or you can go to a local grocer and buy fruit and veg unpackaged.

It just depends whether your desire to be green is enough to want to go to several smaller shops? I'm afraid the larger supermarkets sell in volume so if you want a wide choice, convenience and cheap shopping then that's where you shop.

@SnugglySnerd I've noticed an advantage of the discount stores is slightly less packaging. Eg. Big pot of Aldi yoghurt just covered with foil instead of foil and a plastic lid like the other brands

I think that is the German influence. I think German shops (at least used to) have big counters where customers can strip off the unwanted packaging and it gets returned to the manufacturer for disposal. They have always been a bit hotter on recycling and reusing too (cf the pfand charged on glass etc)

If a tax was levied on the supermarkets for packaging then you can be assured that this will be passed on to you.

Which is why there should be a limit/ outright ban instead of a tax

Yes I fully agree with you. I had a summer job with an environmental pressure group in the U.S. when I was a student. Their campaign at the time was Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It made me really aware of the amount of wasteful packaging used today. When I look at my recycling boxes, it actually annoys me at how much of it was unnecessary packaging in the first place. Yes it's supposedly going to be recycled but recycling uses resources too which could be avoided.

There already are EU regulations to minimise the use of packaging - and these have been around since 1997 in the UK.

Well they're not being followed very well are they Randomly. Several examples of excessive use of packaging has been identified on this thread. Why is it allowed to happen?

Well do what German consumers did to prompt the legislation - unwrap your items at the checkout and leave the supermarket to deal with the waste packaging.

They are actually quite onerous regulations if you have ever had to deal with them, and supermarkets have significantly reduced the amount of packaging used since the regs were brought in.

Well do what German consumers did to prompt the legislation - unwrap your items at the checkout and leave the supermarket to deal with the waste packaging.

They are actually quite onerous regulations if you have ever had to deal with them, and supermarkets have significantly reduced the amount of packaging used since the regs were brought in.

On holiday in Sweden and Czech Republic this week I really noticed the difference in supermarkets.

I have been raving like a lunatic about the recycling system where you return your stuff to the supermarket into a machine and get a refund for the shop (approx 10p). Plastic bottles and cans in Sweden and glass in the Czech Republic. Makes sense for everyone.

But I'm also falling over recycling centres and people collecting said recycling.

Definitely need a packing rebook (everything in a lunch box doesn't need a plastic bag). And defence manufacturers need to take some responsibility but other countries are light years ahead.

Defence manufacturing raises interesting questions about what constitutes packaging and what constitutes an integral part of the product.

Defence manufacturing raises interesting questions about what constitutes packaging and what constitutes an integral part of the product.

my phone is posting everything twice.

We have the 5p thing here in England too already.

That's interesting, shots I assumed it was to keep costs down. Either way it's an improvement.