Plastic from supermarket shelves represents a huge proportion of the total amount flooding onto the UK market each year – with even more of the material used before we place an item in our basket. Behind the scenes, plastic
is endemic throughout the grocery supply chain: from the fields of plastic polytunnels used to grow fruit and vegetables through to the packaging used in transportation. All this comes at a huge environmental and social cost which we are just beginning to understand. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Located at the interface between consumers and suppliers, grocery retailers occupy an almost unique position to lead the transition away from a single-use society by substantially reducing their plastic footprints and supporting
brands and customers to do the same.
In this report, the Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace UK present the findings of the most comprehensive survey to date on how supermarkets are addressing plastic pollution.
