Greenpeace volunteers protested against the use of “pointless plastic” outside Sainsbury’s Portswood at the weekend (Sat 23), returning a basketful of single-use packaging to the store manager.

It had been collected from Sainsbury’s supermarket customers, who also wrote personal messages asking the chain to ditch single-use plastic.

Greenpeace says single-use plastic packaging is a major contributor to the plastic pollution that is devastating rivers and oceans, and UK supermarkets generate more than 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste every year.

Local Greenpeace volunteer Lyn Brayshaw said: “Lots of customers who spoke to us were already avoiding plastic by carrying their shopping home in their own bags and boxes. But there’s only so much customers can do when most of the produce in supermarkets comes swathed in plastic.”

Southampton Greenpeace said that half of supermarkets recently surveyed have no specific targets to reduce plastic packaging and most of those who do are moving at such a slow pace (just 5% per year) that it would take them 20 years to completely rid their shelves of throwaway plastic.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We’re working hard to ensure our packaging is as recyclable as it can be and are one of few retailers to invest in recycling facilities at many of our supermarkets."

Previously
Greenpeace campaigns in Bitterne Park against ‘pointless plastic packaging’