“Ferocious” pressure from consumers to ditch plastic packaging is panicking supermarkets and food brands into switching to materials that may be worse for the environment.
That’s the warning contained in a major new report from UK think tank Green Alliance.
Plastic promises: What the grocery sector is really doing about packaging is based on extensive (anonymised) interviews with leading supermarkets and brand owners in late 2019.
Fairly or unfairly, the report says, the grocery sector finds itself at the sharp end of the new war against plastic pollution, facing great scrutiny and often under enormous public pressure to stop using the material.
That pressure can be “ferocious”, one supermarket buyer told Green Alliance. It’s fairly common to be told that “plastic is evil”, said another.
Unintended consequences
Green Alliance warns that the focus on plastic is producing harmful unintended consequences. A good example would be the sharp increase in the number of ‘bags for life’ sold since the introduction of a 5p charge for single use carrier bags. A Greenpeace study from 2019 shows that UK shoppers now buy 54 bags for life in a year, suggesting they treat them as single use bags, resulting in an overall increase in material use.
Fixating on one material – plastic – also distracts from rigorous evaluation of other materials. The report notes that several retailers have switched from plastic to paper bags. But two immediate problems are evident when the effect of this is studied. First, shoppers typically end up switching from single use plastic bags to single use paper bags (paper bags, vulnerable to water damage, are rarely re-used in practice). Second, paper bags have a much higher carbon impact than plastic bags. The report says that when a full range of environmental impacts is taken into account, a paper bag would need to be used 43 times to have a lower impact than the average plastic bag.
“when a full range of environmental impacts is taken into account, a paper bag would need to be used 43 times to have a lower impact than the average plastic bag”
Consumer confusion
Retailers have also been switching to biodegradable and compostable bags with questionable results. Those that have tested these told Green Alliance that some biodegradable materials didn’t break down efficiently, while some compostable bags would only break down properly in specialist facilities. “Consumers are completely confused about what to do with compostable plastic,” one supermarket buyer commented.
Refillables and zero-waste options are also being explored by the grocery multiples (for example, Waitrose’s Unpacked initiative). Here, the report says, the challenge is “to work out how bigger retailers can incorporate more refill models into their business”. But it adds that refills “should not be see as a holy grail”. One reason for caution is that in-store refills can lead to reduced shelf-life of foods, potentially leading to increased food waste.
“The opportunities for baseless greenwashing are rife”
Limits of outrage
One of the most striking observations from grocery operators is the clear difference between claimed intentions and actual behaviour. In short, the outrage directed at retailers over plastic is not translating into action at the checkout. The majority of consumers continue to buy ‘overpackaged’ food and drink. This saying-doing gap partially explains why single use packaging still dominates supermarket shelves. The report quotes a recent New Plastics Economy survey of more than 200 global members, including 6 of the 10 biggest plastic packaging producers, which revealed that just 3% of the businesses’ packaging is designed for use.
To achieve real progress, says Green Alliance, will require better consumer education and a more collaborative approach to packaging materials innovation (rather than competitive advantage-driven thinking). Solutions “must address the systemic problems of our throwaway society, to avoid the risk of simply substituting current environmental problems with new ones”.
In the meantime, some retailers will continue to switch package materials in full knowledge the it will increase environmental burdens. As one supermarket buyer told Green Alliance: “The opportunities for baseless greenwashing are rife”.