01/09/2018
MPs write to major supermarkets, as pressure grows over the huge amounts of plastic waste they generate. 200 cross-party MPs are calling on heads of the major supermarkets to eliminate plastic packaging from their products by 2023.
The MPs, who are from 7 political parties, have written to Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose, Aldi, Lidl, Budgens and Marks & Spencer urging them to scrap plastic packaging. The major supermarkets in the UK create more than 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste - well over half the household plastic waste - each year. Six of the major supermarkets refused to reveal the amount of plastic packaging they put on to the market, saying the information was commercially sensitive. Analysis by Eunomia environmental consultants used figures provided by Aldi and the Co-op - The only chains to release public figures on their plastic tonnage - and the market share of each supermarket to estimate how much plastic packaging the chains produce each year.
Recently, Iceland announced it would stop plastic packaging on its own brand products by 2023. While, Waitrose also has announced it would no longer use black plastic for its meat, fish, fruit and vegetables by the end of this year, and that all Waitrose products would be free of black plastic by the end of 2019. Black plastic cannot be recycled under current UK systems.
Each year it is estimated that more than 300m tonnes of plastic are produced globally. The Guardian revealed recently that plastic production is set to soar over the next 10 years.
Not long ago, Coca-Cola also has announced a new goal to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of the packaging it sells globally by 2030. However, Greenpeace which is campaigning for the introduction of a plastic bottle deposit scheme in the UK, said Coca-Cola’s plan failed to include any reduction of the company’s rapidly increasing use of single-use plastic bottles globally, which now stands at well over 110bn annually. Greenpeace estimates that Coca-Cola has increased its number of single-use plastic bottles by nearly a third (31%) since 2008 and that they now account for almost 70% of Coke’s packaging globally.
Nam Việt (The Guardian source)
(Source: Vietnam Environment Administration Magazine, English Edition II-2018)
