Sainsbury’s ‘worst for plastic’

Sainsbury’s is the worst in class of all major UK supermarkets for cutting plastic packaging, according to Greenpeace analysis announced today (29 March).

The UK’s second-biggest supermarket is the target of a new campaign by Greenpeace, after it came last in a 2018 survey of supermarket plastic policies and was found to have made the least progress on plastics reduction since January last year.

The organisation is calling for Sainsbury’s to set yearly plastic reduction targets, and start by eliminating unnecessary and unrecyclable plastic by 2020.

‘Sainsbury’s knows that plastics pollute our oceans and harm wildlife. They know that customers care about cutting plastic. And they know their competitors have outdone them on plastics reductions measures. But they remain worst in class.

‘If supermarkets fail to cut their plastic packaging, they’re sending pollution on a conveyor belt that could end up in our rivers and seas. This has to stop. Sainsbury’s must eliminate unnecessary and unrecyclable plastic by 2020.’

ELENA POLISANO
Ocean plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK

Sainsbury’s ‘worst performer’

Greenpeace looked at publicly available plastics pledges from the top 10 UK supermarkets since January 2018 and found Sainsbury’s was the worst performer.

Sainsbury’s promised to cut just 77 tonnes of plastic packaging, while Asda achieved 6,500 tonnes of reductions. Sainsbury’s published no information about the number of units of plastics cut, while Marks and Spencer and Co-op both reduced their output by more than 500m units.

Greenpeace analysis found that for the supermarkets that had announced how many tonnes of plastics would be cut, the average reduction was 2,217 tonnes – Sainsbury’s pledged to cut just 77 tonnes.

For those that announced how many units of plastics would be cut, the average reduction was 266.3m units. Sainsbury’s did not publish how many units of plastic it cut.

On average nine plastics pledges had been made, while Sainsbury’s announced just five new measures on plastics.

Recycling vs reduction

Despite plastic production being set to quadruple by 2050, retailers are still focusing more on recycling than reduction.

Most major supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, have committed to eliminate non-recyclable plastic packaging by as late as 2025 as part of the UK Plastics Pact. The voluntary targets do not necessarily entail an overall plastics reduction.

Many retailers have additional targets to eliminate problematic plastics such as PVC, expanded polystyrene and black plastic within the next two years – but not Sainsbury’s.