Supermarkets in the UK use far too much packaging.
This is the message that has come from a recent study. The study found that despite the attempts of government and the public to up their recycling rates, supermarkets are, in some cases, making it more and more difficult.
The Local Government Association said that if this trend continues, then the United Kingdom will find it difficult to hit the recycling targets set by government.
The study was commissioned by the Local Government Association.
A basket of twenty nine common grocery items were bought in a selection of supermarkets, as well as a local market and a local retailer.
The results showed that out of the retailers selected, Lidl was found to have the highest amount of packaging, but surprisingly, Marks & Spencer has the most packaging that could not be recycled on its food items. Of the items bought, only 60 per cent of the packaging in goods from Marks & Spencer’s was recyclable.
Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco were also involved in the study.
It was also found that out of the total weight of all the products bought during the study, around 5 per cent was made up from packaging.
The retailers that came off the best in the study, were the local markets and the local retailers, who, on average had the most packaging that could be recycled, in many cases 79 percent.
Out of the retailers involved in the Local Government Association study, the amount of recycling packaging used were as follows:
Local market 79%, local retailer 79%, Asda 70%, Sainsbury’s 70%, Morrisons 68%, Tesco 62%, Lidl 61% and M&S 60%.
www.asda.co.uk
|
|
