Generous : Send it back to where it came from. Every little helps.

Send it back to where it came from. Every little helps.

07 Mar 2006 by Paul Northup

’Today 15 million plastic bottles will walk out of our supermarkets. In a year that is getting close to a half a billion bottles. In our country we use more food packaging per person than anyone else in Europe.

The way we look at things is this: It is better to produce less packaging than to try and get everyone to recycle more. To do this we have to convince just five people in the UK: the all powerful supermarket bosses. If they wanted their suppliers to use less packaging, their suppliers would have no choice but to listen. But if our supermarkets want to lead the way in terms
of corporate responsibility, they could put this power to good use.

There are plenty of ways that they can do this. Manufacturers could market products in more concentrated form, use packaging that is thinner, lighter or better designed, or ideally, use biodegradable packaging, (A similar scheme in Germany cut down 1 million tons of packaging in four years. An aircraft carrier weighs approximately 60,000 tons).

So here’s what to do…

You send the bottles back to Waitrose or Tesco or Sainsburys and as we have borrowed this story from the good people over at the Howie’s catalogue, we’re going to suggest you click over to them for the addresses and more advice.

Find the details, click here here.

And if you do take up their suggestion, you’ll be completing another Generous Action (which we got from them in the first place) – Send The Packaging Back. It’s here.