Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Too much packaging? Dump it at checkout, urges minister

Fed up with green beans on black plastic trays? Tired of cucumbers in tight-fitting plastic jackets? Have you had enough of bananas in bags? Then, according to a government minister, you should remove the offending packaging - and dump it at the checkout.

Shoppers were urged yesterday to take direct action to force supermarkets to cut the excessive and wasteful packaging that goes direct from the shop shelf to the household bin. The environment minister Ben Bradshaw advised food shoppers to leave excessive wrapping at the tills and to report the stores to trading standards in an attempt to cut the amount of unnecessary plastic sent to landfill sites.

A spokesman for Tesco said: "We would prefer it if our customers use our recycling facilities, but if customers want to leave their packaging with us we will deal with it appropriately."

A spokesman for Asda described the minister's call for shoppers to dump their waste in store as "an interesting development".

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