Packaging recycling petition reaches Parliament

MPs are today, 24 June, to debate a petition urging the government to ban the use of all non-recyclable and unsustainable food packaging. The petition attracted 247,048 signatures in six months.

Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge and a member of the Petitions Committee, will open the debate.

The Petitions Committee heard from almost 20,000 people about their experience of plastic packaging. Despite an overwhelming majority saying that they would choose to buy basic groceries without plastic packaging, the committee reported that very few said they were able to do so at their local shops.

In response to the petition, the government said: “Our Strategy sets out plans to eliminate avoidable plastic waste. We have consulted on proposals to incentivise producers to make more sustainable packaging design choices and recyclable packaging. “

And, the initial government response added: “Most food packaging is technically recyclable, though the current market does not make all recycling economically viable.”

Dr Therese Coffey is expected to repond on behalf of the government at the Committee.

The petition can be seen at: Packaging petition.

Full details of a survey linked to the petition are available at: parliamentary research briefings.

Grapes

A total of 94% of people said that they wanted to buy grapes without plastic, but only 9% were able to, 95% said that they would choose to buy breakfast cereal without plastic packaging but only 12% were able to, 95% of people surveyed told the Committee they would choose to use refillable containers to buy products like rice, pasta and milk, if they were given the option and 78% said that they supported a ban on all plastic food packaging.

The petition, which has more than 247,000 signatures, states: “Today the Earth is at a crisis point due to our plastic consumption, and as a result, people in the UK are more willing than ever to engage in recycling. Yet so much food packaging remains completely, frustratingly unrecyclable. Let’s aim for the UK to lead the world with a 100% recycling rate.”

Landfill

The petitioner adds: “Every day we send to landfill, to decompose over thousands of years: cereal box inner bags, peel-off film, almost all plastic supermarket fruit and veg packets, crisp packets, sweets wrappers, chocolate bar wrappers, Styrofoam, and vacuum pack plastic to name a few. The British public wants to recycle but we can’t get away from the vast amounts of waste that poorly designed packaging creates.”