I see the council met up recently to assess whether we here in Donegal would benefit by an incinerator being built to get rid of our waste packaging. While the folk sit around a table and potentially turn Donegal into a dumping ground for the rest of Europe there is a group of women in England who are being pro- active and lobbying supermarkets to cut the unnecessary packaging that is causing part of the problem in the first place.
It wants stores to charge for plastic bags, which we have done already, and phase out practices such as shrink wrapping fruit and vegetables and placing them on trays. Supermarkets say they have made efforts to cut packaging in recent years. In a day of action recently, Women’s Institute members returned "excess" wrappers to stores and urge them to do more to address environmental concerns. According to the WI, supermarket groceries still account for 70% of the packaging market. It is calling on supermarkets to only use compostable and recyclable materials in its packaging where required. Supermarkets are trying to please the consumer; it’s where it gets its profits from after all. The Institute also wants stores to buy fresh produce from local suppliers where possible to cut down on transport emissions, give unsold groceries to charities and turn any excess into compost.
Environmental.
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