So following on from the black plastic post, one reader (yes, there was one!) wrote to Wiltshire Farm Foods to ask them about their packaging. They use thousands of black plastic trays for their ready meals every day.
This is their reply: Recycling ‘waste’ materials so they can be used again, rather than using new materials, is key to protecting and preserving our planet. Wiltshire Farm Foods have signed up to the UK Plastics Pact to help tackle the growing issue of single-use plastic packaging. The UK Plastics Pact aims to transform the plastic packaging system in the UK and its purpose will be to keep plastic in the economy and out of the ocean. As part of the pact, apetito/WFF have committed to hit a series of ambitious targets by 2025 including 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.
They obviously think this is good enough – I’m afraid I don’t! Up to seven more years of non-recyclable plastic being added to that already on and around our shores, or buried in landfill. We know that it can be sported before that – check out this link from Brakes here
I contacted the organisation behind the initiative – I’m so glad that someone is doing something! Find out more at http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/the-uk-plastics-pact
I asked if the pact was compulsory or voluntary and guess what? The reply was – Sign-up to The UK Plastics Pact is voluntary. It is up to individual organisations to assess whether it is advantageous for them to sign.
So I guess we ALL need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT So what could we do?
- Don’t buy food packaged in black plastic if you can find an alternative
- Write to all firms who use it and say you won’t be buying it again until they change
- Write to supermarkets and ask them what they are doing about it
- (Slightly controversial) Take your black plastic back to the supermarket where you bought it or even post it back if you bought online.
Do you have any other ideas?
Ethical Knitting Nana 