Plastic in supermarkets

Currently seven of eight Australian states or territories have bag bans in place. New South Wales is the black sheep, being the only state with a bag ban not in place. The NSW Government has announced an intention to introduce a ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags, likely to come into effect in 2022 (National Retail Association).

In terms of other sorts of plastic in supermarkets there is still a long way to go, with many items such as fruit, vegetables and bread still wrapped in plastic. I decided to do a little experiment and go to my local supermarket which is a typical major supermarket. Chilli con carne is a dish I make on a regular basis and uses a variety of ingredients so I thought this would be a good dish to use for the experiment.

I bought all the ingredients for Chili con carne to see how much plastic is used in the packaging of the ingredients. I even made it easy for the supermarket by bringing my own shopping and produce bags (bags for fruit and vegetables). The ingredients used and the amount of plastic used is listed below.

Ingredients for Chili con carne

• Mince 500g - plastic tray – recyclable

• Diced tomatoes - none – recyclable tin

• Red kidney beans - none – recyclable tin

• 1 chili - none – used produce bag

• 1 onion - none – used produce bag

• 1 bag of brown rice - comes in plastic recyclable bag

• Tub of sour cream - comes in plastic container

• Mexican chili powder - comes  in recyclable perspex jar

Ingredients for Chili con carne

Even with bringing my own bags there was quite a bit of plastic still used that I couldn’t avoid, such as the mince which came in plastic tray. There was also the sour cream which came in a plastic tub and the rice which came in a plastic bag. The onion and chili I was able to avoid using a plastic bag by using my own produce bag. The diced tomatoes and red kidney beans came in recyclable cans.

To be fair the plastic items all said they were recyclable, however I wondered if they actually would be recycled or end up in landfill anyway. Perhaps part of the problem is that it is often difficult to work out which items should be put in the recycling bin.

It seems the only way to avoid plastic completely is to change my shopping habits and shop at local markets or a bulk food store. I would also need to go to a butcher to avoid buying meat in plastic trays, further increasing my shopping time.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel however. Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and big food manufacturers have committed to making all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. This is part of an industry-wide ANZPAC Plastics Pact to eliminate plastic packaging waste. Nearly 60 organisations in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific have signed the pact, including the big supermarket chains, Amcor, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Unilever, Arnott’s, Asahi, Colgate-Palmolive, Mondelez, Pepsico, Unilever, Veolia, Planet Ark, KeepCup, the Australian Beverages Council and TerraCycle Australia (Australian Financial Review ).

There are various ways that plastic waste can be tackled. From the consumer point of view we can purchase less plastic. There are small things that each of us can do such as bring your own shopping and produce bags to the supermarket, shop at local markets or bulk food stores.

From the manufacturing end, we can put pressure on companies to take responsibility for the products they produce by producing products without plastic. This is what The Greens propose. The Greens are proposing enhanced technology and sorting processes at recycling plants and for $500 million to be put aside by the Federal Government to go to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to mandate waste management.

The Greens are proposing enhanced technology and sorting processes at recycling plants and for $500 million to be put aside by the Federal Government to go to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to mandate waste management. The party also wants a national mandatory product stewardship scheme to encourage manufacturers to make recyclable products, a phase out of single-use plastics and community grants to encourage recycling (ABC News).

There are a few organisations that are tackling plastic waste. These include Australian Marine Conservation Society, Greenpeace, and The Plastic Free Foundation.  Every little bit that we can do will make a difference towards reducing waste. It is a complex problem and needs to be tackled from various angles.