Supermarkets’ moves against waste praised

A WASTE management expert from Deakin University has praised measures adopted by Australia’s major supermarkets to address the country’s waste crisis, but said they needed to go further.

Coles and Woolworths have already pledged to stop supplying single use plastic bags within weeks, but more recently, Woolworths will phase out plastic straw sales by 2019 and remove packaging from 80 fruit and vegetable products, and Coles will make all its home branded packaging recyclable by 2020.

Dr Trevor Thornton, a lecturer in Deakin’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences, said he was glad to see Coles’ commitment to examine its packaging before the Environment Minister’s deadline of 2025 for all packaging produced in Australia to be reusable, combustible, or recyclable.

“It would be would be good to see other supermarkets follow suit, with a process to identify items that are over-packaged or packaged with composite materials (that then makes the packaging non-recyclable), and then set a requirement that these issues be resolved well before that 2025 deadline.

“Time is running out if we want to address our country’s mounting waste burden. We need to get ahead of the game, and that means putting the pressure on the food manufacturers supplying our supermarkets too.”

He said there were several other simple steps supermarkets could take if they wanted to get serious on waste reduction, including:

• Get rid of the stickers used on some fruit
• Place items that have packaging with low environmental impact in prominent positions in the store
• Investigate removing polystyrene packaging
• Introduce a “green” aisle that promotes sustainable products
• Publish accurate data on the waste and energy reductions that have been made thanks to introduced changes
• Require each store to contribute funds to a local environmental initiative
• Make it easy for shoppers to contribute ideas or concerns about environmental issues
• Advise suppliers that stores will be promoting products that are packaged with recycled material.

Closer to home, a Deakin exchange student last month instigated a ban on plastic straws at student residences on the university’s Warrnambool campus.