We’re fully behind the #SickOfPlastic campaign and today we offer our platform to Claudia Tormey, from the Sick of Plastic Campaign to tell you about the progress to date. There’s a lot achieved , a way to go, but we’re motoring ahead. Well done to all !
Claudia reports that…….. The campaign has delivered 21,235 petition signatures! All of these signatures were collected from various Sick of Plastic activities over the past year from our Shop and Drop local actions to campaigning at Electric Picnic with Friends of the Earth and the thousands of people that signed online through shares on social media.
Thank you for taking the time to act on plastic! Click here to sign the Plastic Petition!
Why not join the #PacketIn scheme and recycle your wrappers and crisp bags. We also presented Tesco with the results from our supermarket plastic survey which was taken to allow customers to rate their supermarket’s progress, since last year’s Shop and Drop, on reducing excess packaging.
680 people completed the survey over a period of three months, see the 5 star rating for each supermarket below:
- Lidl: 2.6 stars ★★★☆☆
- Supervalu: 2 stars ★★☆☆☆
- Aldi: 1.6 stars ★★☆☆☆
- Dunnes Stores: 1.5 stars ★★☆☆☆
- Tesco: 1.4 stars ★★☆☆☆
Although supermarkets did respond well to last year’s Shop and Drop, and have made some steps in the right direction, our survey shows that there is still a lot more to be done.
The supermarket plastic survey also found that a
- huge majority of people want to see all supermarkets provide loose fruit and veg, bakery items and deli counter produce, and
- 2. allow them to use their own reusable containers.
The survey also found that
- Complaints about loose fruit and veg being more expensive per item than same product packaged in plastic, across all supermarkets.
- People want incentives for plastic free options, to encourage more shoppers to buy loose. Despite Tesco falling behind other supermarkets in our 5 star ranking, it is great to see they are now making moves to respond to customer demands.
As part of Tesco’s Little Helps Plan, Tesco have made the following commitments:
- Tesco brand packaging will be fully recyclable by 2025
- End the use of hard to recycle materials from Tesco brand packaging by the end of 2019
- All paper and board used will be 100% sustainable by 2025
- Tesco will halve packaging by weight by 2025
Claudia says ‘ We look forward to meeting with other major supermarkets Aldi, Supervalu, Lidl and Dunnes Stores to hear about their plans to tackle plastic packaging in their stores. And we will continue to campaign until all supermarkets commit and act on all six demands to break free from plastic.
Creating change is not easy, but collaboration and cooperation will get us there.’
Thank you for everything you are doing to #BreakFreeFromPlastic! Claudia – Sick of Plastic Campaign