Plastics packaging – a view from retailers

It isn’t just consumers that worry about plastic contamination and the damage it does to wildlife and the environment. Retailers are people too and some of them are even members of Transition Cambridge. But cutting down on plastic is not easy – some of the seemingly easy solutions are not really solutions at all. Here are some thoughts from three of our members: from Jacky, co-owner of the Cambridge Cheese Company and from Paul and Emma who have just started a new business called Full Circle offering zero-waste products (cleaning products in reusable containers, reusable food wraps, coffee cups and so on). You can see Paul at his stall in the market on Mondays.

The Cambridge Cheese Company actively encourages you to bring your own clean jars to use for deli-products like olives.

Biodegradable containers are not a good solution.
The Cambridge Cheese Company now gets vegware containers for the deli-counter stuff like olives. These are bio-degradable but the staff have to warn people not to put them in the green bin for composting by the council – Jacky asked and they said bio-degradable plastic is not allowed because it clogs up the shredders. This puts them out of action for days and is expensive to fix.  Bio-degradable plastic is not recyclable, so you should not put then in the blue bin either. Your garden compost bin may be OK – but vegware do not guarantee that either! ).


Paper packaging is OK if made from recycled paper made with renewable energy
Paul provides some products packaged with recycled paper, like ZWP (Zero Waste Path) soap bars. However, this is not just any old recycled paper – it is made with renewable energy. Recycling paper uses a lot of energy and if this is not low carbon the environmental impact can be serious (see this story about the Environment Agency’s view of Morrison’s switching to paper bags.


Using your own containers, or returnable containers is good.
The cheese shop now actively encourages her customers to bring clean jars to use instead of the vegware for deli products (see picture). Paul is keen to promote recycling and re-use: he has found a deodorant that comes in a tin that can be returned and refilled (also from ZWP). He is also a recycling point for certain hard-to-recycle products such as crisp packets (with TerraCycle and Walkers) and toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes (with Terracycle and Colgate). Proceeds from these schemes go to Cambridge Carbon Footprint.

Paul is also looking into dispensers for dry goods, though they are surprisingly expensive for retailers to buy. Also Jacky pointed out, particularly for food items, if the product does not sell very rapidly it could get stale in the dispenser. Then it would have to be thrown away.

Paul is looking into dispensers for dry goods.

Rules are very tight for food products
Jacky’s shop often gets cheese wrapped in a sort of bubble-wrap to help keep it cold during the journey – for small companies a refrigerated lorry is out of the question so they use lightweight insulation and ice packs instead. Jacky was saving these to return, thinking they would be reusable but apparently not. The suppliers have been told by their local environmental health authority that they must not reuse any packaging that has left the premises. When it comes to food, safety is always the first priority, but surely there has to be a balance between risk to the consumer and risk to the environment? Maybe there needs to be more discussion about how to assess the risks in practice.

Shoppers and retailers have to work together on this.
Plastic packaging is very convenient for everyone – for the retailers and for shoppers too. However if we are to reduce our use of plastic without simply switching to other materials which have other environmental impacts we need to look at re-use rather than just re-cycling. That means we have to work together: returning re-usable packaging or bringing our own clean jars and tubs.

Shopping survey – you can help
Have you asked about using your own containers at the shops you normally use? We have started a survey on this and have been pleasantly surprised so far. If you’d like to help please fill in the survey questionnaire here.