Can't the supermarkets sort plastic out with councils?

[crosstalk]

I have just bought 4 pears from Waitrose. They came in a double protective plastic carton with plastic wrapping around it. Wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been £1 all in. HOWEVER while the wrapping description said "not currently recycled" (gah) the trays description said "check local recycling".

This is lazy and ludicrous. I might try phoning my local council to say "I have two Waitrose pear trays. No idea about what plastic they are. Do you recycle them?" I can imagine my local council might quite rightly tell me to FTHO unless of course they have a magically long list in their databases that says Waitrose (tick) pears (tick)

So why aren't supermarkets getting together with councils to check what can be recycled?

I am not buying anything in plastic again. But other people may have to do.

Because Waitrose has one production source for their pear packaging and there are many different recycling options for councils.

‘Not currently recycled’ is my favourite, I guess it’s more PR friendly than ‘not recyclable’ but it implies if you hold onto it long enough maybe you can recycle it in future!

I’m guessing the reason is because the packaging is made into a central location then shipped out to all the many Waitrose locations in the UK, logistically it would be too difficult to coordinate the different recycling capabilities across the UK and distribute accordingly.

I have a friend who actually did try phoning the council about this as it was understandably winding her up. She was told to check with the retailer

I have recently started getting a fruit and veg delivery from a local farm shop. It is mostly organic and completely plastic free. It is far cheaper than I expected. I would highly recommend this as the amount of plastic wasted on packaging fruit and veg is ridiculous.

I don't know why retailers aren't doing more about this.

It would help if councils were a bit clearer. The website for ours just says plastic food trays - so which ones? Any? Because not so long ago they said no black ones. And the text used to say ice cream cartons were ok but the photo they used for the do not recycle section had a bloomin ice cream carton in it!

Asda have a bin where you can recycle your plastic bags but the sign on it also says you can recycle things like bread bags, or cereal bags. But then Asda’s own brand cereal says on the box that the bag isn’t recyclable aargh!

I've been trying to use that Asda bin too Judith, I assume the cereal box was printed with recycling instructions before they started doing the bins. Some other bits do confuse me though, some wrap is ok but film is not argghhh.

Basically nearly all plastic is recyclable in theory but the infrastructure isn't there or there's no market for the resulting product, it should change in time I hope.

I'm returning to this belatedly. But why can't the supermarkets and their suppliers sort it out with councils? why isn't there a push to do this?

All the virtue signalling with plastic bags and paper bags isn't enough. Waitrose is doing home recyclable stuff for veg but still most of their products are in plastic (yoghourts, milk etc etc) but no indication of whether they're recyclable. I bought some of their cheese the other day in a waxed packet but inside it was in plastic wrapping.

@Whackaguacamole So why aren't they doing it? why do they not cooperate with councils?

I'm returning to this belatedly. But why can't the supermarkets and their suppliers sort it out with councils? why isn't there a push to do this?

Because there are more than 300 local authorities in the UK and the big supermarket chains are national.

If LAs were encouraged or forced to make the same minimum recycling “offer” as each other, nationally, to include common plastics, the supermarkets would know where they were.

OTOH, supermarkets need to use more biodegradable materials in the first place.

Also; We all need to buy more loose produce.