Ok – the cat is out of the bag…my master plan has been revealed in a blog post (see the excerpt from the ‘Kitchen‘ chapter).
I am waging a war against the hefty retailers, supermarkets in particular, and I want ‘you’ to sign up as trusty warriors – but we’ll be using words, not swords and you know what ‘they’ say about that…
“True, This! -
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! – itself a nothing! -
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! – Take away the sword -
States can be saved without it!”
(Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy.)
On the last page of the sneak preview of my ‘Kitchen‘ chapter, you will have seen one of my ‘Letters for Change’. It’s laid out like an email in the book. There are several ‘Letters for Change’ dotted throughout the book, but this one is my favourite.
This ‘Letter for Change’ calls for the store in question to provide their customers with receptacles so they can deposit unwanted, superfluous packaging. Ideally, there would be one for cardboard, one for plastic and anything else would be a bonus!
It would allow you to leave behind those plastic four-pack holders for cat food or beans, the cardboard wrapper that holds your yoghurts and the irritating cellophane that embraces your cucumber.
I urge you to copy it out adding the details of your local stores, MP, BBC radio stations etc, speak to your friends about it too, seek their support, then post or email your correspondence to the relevant parties.
Depending upon their response, you might like to take things on a stage further – see below.
You see, you are not legally obliged to take any of this packaging home with you and you have a perfect right to leave it at the point of sale.
My hopes with this exercise are simple; optimistic, but simple.
- The stores in question should accept their corporate social responsibility for thoughtful recycling of this unwanted and very often superfluous packaging, by giving their customers receptacles to deposit it in, at the point of sale.
- If not, they might face a wave of disgruntled customers, who exercised their right to leave said packaging at the till, for the store staff to organise a swift disposal of, which I suspect might cause a kafuffle, (especially if there were a dozen people doing synchronised unwrapping at several tills at the same time – not a suggestion, just a thought…).
- If this were to become a ‘bit of a faff’, I suspect the retailers would soon tire of their customers kicking back and saying ‘NO’ to the excess packaging on their goods; particularly once they realise they are paying over the top of the price of the produce, just to take the wrapping home and throw in the bin!
- Further, the retailers might eventually reconsider the products they stock and give the consumers what many of them want – their goods without all of the wrap!
To effect positive change on a national scale is clearly an enormous undertaking, but I’m not a girl to aim low.
I truly believe we consumers have the ability to make ourselves clearly heard and we can make the retailers rethink their environmental policies in favour of their customers.
If we are to make a ripple in the pond of our modern culture, we are going to have to pull together, get support from our friends and neighbours, get writing, carry out our action and cause a little organised chaos!
Who’s in?
Rubbishly yours,
TSx
Find your Member of Parliament.
Find your local BBC Radio station.
PS: Environmental policies? Let’s see them in action!
This is a wonderful idea, Tracey and I’m happily joining in with you. I already plague manufacturers with queries about their packaging, but your letter takes things one step further.
So yes, count me in!
Terrific – I want to hear from ‘everybody’ who does this!
What did ‘your’ store say and did they do anything to shoulder the burden of recycling those erroneous materials?
Drop me a line, tell me all.
Let’s praise the stores who really ‘are’ doing something to help their local and global environments AND their customers too!
TSx
(OFF TOPIC)
Does nobody want to look at the reeeeally obvious clue I left in the comments from yesterday for a chance to win an advance copy of The Book of Rubbish Ideas?
Looking at your blog for the first time – some great ideas in the sample pages – thought I may as well go for the obvious answer of the ‘Black Forest’ – or is that too obvious?
well then Thomas, it has to be the Black Forest – not sure where it is though; Germany??
Ah – J Pritchard, just read your comment – well done!
Tracey, I’m going to post about this idea tomorrow on MZW; it’s such a brilliant plan that deserves lots of coverage and action. Yay!
Indeed, the photo used on the “Recycle Your Glossies” post was of The Black Forest – on the western edge near Freiburg to be precise.
Well done J and Mrs Green for getting the correct answer and as there was only 4 minutes between you, I’ll send you both a copy of Tracey’s book. You’ll get an email from me soon with the details.
Cheers
Thomas
bless you Thomas; that’s really kind. I’m going to share this book with a friend by saving for her until Christmas – she is the sort of gal who will ensure it gets passed around and shared with others, so it is going to a good home
Thank you!
It was a lovely forest; we’re lucky to live in a forest area and I never tire of it; every day is different and unique in the way the light falls through the trees.
Hi Tracey, right behind you on this one!
Thanks for bringing awareness to this really important issue.
Mrs. Green is just whisking emails off right now to retailers, so we’ll keep you up to date. So much of packaging is marketing and branding. It treats us like gullable children who just see something bright and glitzy and don’t think any further than what we see. Sadly that’s true for some people and that’s due to the enormous marketing pressures put on us everyday.
This action will reveal the naked truth about our foodstuffs and other items. That can only be good for the consumer and a real step forward for lessening waste.
Phew!
Have just sent emails to our local Sainsburys, Waitrose, Co-op, Asda, Tescos and Morrisons.
I’m going to be really interested to find out what responses I get!
This is brilliant Tracey; I’m very inspired by what you are doing
Meheheheheee, don’t you love automated responses. You are going to so love this one:
Dear xxxxxx
Thanks for getting in touch.
We’re always looking at providing our customers with the best quality
products at the lowest prices.
If you believe your products is something our customers would be
interested in then we would be happy to hear about it.
All you need to do is write to us, at the following address, explaining
what your product is and how it will give our customers something they
don’t currently have.
ASDA Stores Limited
ASDA House
Southbank
Great Wilson Street
Leeds
LS11 5AD
Please address your letter to the Service Team, add your address at the
top, and we’ll contact you.
If you need any extra help, please let us know.
Kind Regards
ASDA Service Team
Ah well, 1 down, 5 to go. I had to call Morrisons as they do not have email addresses according to their customer service and I’m awaiting a call back.
tick…tock…tick….tock
My, this is fun! But my response to Asda is not for public eyes LOL!
This is a better one; as I expected from the Co-Op. They are keeping me updated and I will no doubt hear back with any useful information:
Dear xxxxx
Thank you for taking the time to contact The Midcounties Co-operative Society.
I have drawn your query to the attention of our Energy and Environment Officer and copied it to The Co-operative Group in Manchester, who source many of our products.
My colleagues will now investigate your suggestions.
Kind regards
Anne Howlett
Midcounties Co-operative
So far so good then
I don’t know – I go to work for 5 minutes and all the action kicks off!
Wonderful comments here guys and it’s great to see the whole project ‘unwrapping’ so to speak.
I have a feeling this is going to be a very looooooong thread…
Incidentally, if anyone here reports for local or national papers, I’d LOVE to talk to you about this…
Keep your news coming!
TSx
I’m off to do my letters to the supermarkets. It’s such a simple but brilliant idea Tracey.
I must say that I’ve managed to leave three shoe boxes and all their contents at shops this Summer Holiday. I just bunged the new shoes in my handbag. Yes, it’s huge. School shoe buying – a total nightmare to start with, never mind the packaging!
Response from Waitrose; this is a very interesting one…….
Dear xxxx
Thank you for your e-mail.
Waitrose does not have the facilities or storage capacity inside our shops to recycle product packaging.
Recycling facilities are provided to most homes by local authorities and we believe that this is the most environmentally and financially preferable solution for recycling packaging. For example, local authorities typically offer kerbside collection facilities and also central collection points.
Waitrose has a legal obligation to recycle up to 80% of our product packaging (depending on material), under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations introduced in 1997. We fully support this legislation, and contribute over £1 million a year towards a recycling compliance scheme that invests in kerbside collections and public recycling centres so that customers can recycle the packaging they take home. The legislation has driven improvements in packaging recovery rates from 6% in 1997 to over 60% today.
Recycling facilities in Waitrose shops is restricted to PE (polyethylene) carrier bags. Plastic bags supplied by Waitrose for vegetables can also be dispensed of in these facilities.
Where space permits, we do offer and encourage local authorities to provide and service centralised recycling points in our car parks – for materials such as clothing, glass and paper. The space we have is limited by the traditional size of our shops and car parks and we have to consider impact on customer traffic movement and also health and safety implications. For the vast majority of our shops we do not have responsibility for these services, as they are maintained and serviced by the local authority and not Waitrose.
Waitrose also supports websites which enable consumers to identify their nearest recycling centre and importantly the types of materials which may be recycled locally – http://www.recyclenow.com and http://www.recycle-more.co.uk.
Regards,
Chris Zawadski
Waitrose Customer Service.
Now the Co-Op are the ones we try to patronise as much as possible, for lots of reasons, including their ethical policies.
Their own label foods have all the packaging including type and codes listed on the wrapping somewhere.
Today, for instance we found the perfect ‘convenience’ food – it was roast beef in a foil container, cardboard sleeve and the film was LDPE (4) which means it CAN be recycled. Much of the time those films are an unknown – we’re currently onto Birds Eye to find out what they use………
But anyway, here is a more positive response from the Co-Op, which I was kind of expecting and I’m heartened to read
Dear xxxxx
Thank you for your recent email entitled ‘Your corporate social responsibility obligations and disposal of unwanted excess wrapping and packaging’. This is a significant area that we are working on as a business. Packaging is there to aid with the transport of food from their source to the end user, i.e. the customer. We already dispose of much of the packaging before the food reaches the shelves, but a certain amount of packaging is essential to comply with Food Safety and Health and Safety legislation, and is in place to protect both the retailer and consumer. This is an area that we continue to look at in an endeavour to reduce packaging to an absolute minimum. Not only will this reduce the amount of waste created, but it will also have a positive impact in pricing.
We share your view and are presently working toward offering customer recycling facilities in our stores. We are working with our waste / recycling collection partner to implement recycling facilities into our stores that customers can use. If negotiations run smoothly we will operate a pilot study within a store (or selection of stores depending on discussions with our collection partner) to provide this facility. If successful this will be rolled out to other stores across our trading area. The long term plan is to have this facility rolled out across our larger stores (Supermarkets) across our trading area. This is a key priority for us and we are working hard to get to this stage.
Kind regards
Anne Howlett
Midcounties Co-operative
Freephone: 0800 138 2909
Hi Tracey,
Taking on packaging is a big task. As a Zero Waste enthusaist, I think finding ZW alternatives is a good way to tackle the problem.
Today at Sainsbury’s, as I found 6 months ago, there is no alternative to the plastic commodity bag for desiccated coconut. Alternatives to this could be specialised suppliers of loose product or home processing of actual coconuts.
Container based purchases seem to be the future but how could you apply this in superstores? It would be a drastic change for them and they are reluctant to move, though Sainbury’s do look at sustainability issues.
Best of luck with your campaign. I will definitely participate but it is as well to know the opposition.
Regards,
John.
LOL – Tracey and Mrs G you are fab…I take to my bed for a few days and look at the stir you’ve caused. Great going girls, will catch up with everything when I’m back in the land of the living. ;-D
This is tremendous news and thanks for reporting your responses on the thread.
Keep penning those notes and keep sending them in.
We can be part of the change.
TSx
Hi Tracey,
The next stage for supermarket visits is group participation. Such a ContainerFest would simply be selecting 1 product for emptying either at check-out or customer services.
On the email side, a list of container items could be sent to a chosen email address, by all concerned. A small list could consist of salt, rice, coconut, biscuits etc. If the emails had similar requests, that would provide a stronger message.
Regards,
John.
Response from Tesco on a Sunday!
Dear xxxx
Tesco fully supports the principle of recovery, recycling and re-use, and we’re working with the British Retail Consortium to provide a workable and effective compliance scheme that will help to provide a network of accessible collection facilities.
Our award-winning green trays have now been adopted all over the world. This is because these green trays replace cardboard boxes and other packaging traditionally used to transport and display products. They also protect products and minimise damage.
Our stores have an internal programme for recycling paper, cardboard and plastic, and more than 80% of these materials are recycled. Over the last four years we’ve increased the proportion of all the store waste recycled from 55% to 71%. We continually visit and audit stores to encourage staff to improve the amount of cardboard and plastic recycled. Stores with poor recycling rates are given third-party training in best recycling practice.
We also have recycling points outside our stores which customers can use to recycle materials such as product packaging.
I hope this information has helped.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us.
If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us at customer.service@tesco.co.uk quoting TES5503456X.
Kind Regards
Niky McBride
Tesco Customer Service
Response from Sainsburys, at last:
Dear xxxx
Thank you for you contacting us. Please accept my apologies for the unacceptable amount of time it has taken to respond to your query. I hope this has not caused you any inconvenience.
I understand from your email that you would like us to provide suitable receptacles in our stores for customers to deposit their excess packaging in. I have discussed your email with my colleagues here at our store support centre. They have advised me that due the amount of space these would take up and our in store fire regulations it would not possible for us to do this. However, they have informed me that 308 of our stores currently have car park recycling facilities. These include, paper, cardboard, aluminium, glass and some plastics. We also have carrier bag recycling bins in all our larger stores.
If you could send me your postal code I will be more than happy to advise you which recycling facilities are available at your local store. Please ensure that when replying to us you include your original message, which I have attached.
Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us. Your views are most welcome.
Kind regards
Teresa Martin
Customer Manager
Just checking through my stuff, I have not had a ‘proper’ response from ASDA and no response at all from Morrisons.
I have to say, this might be what I expected in terms of interest from these two supermarkets/
Doesn’t anyone else have anything to report on this?
Mrs G x
Hi Mrs Green,
They will not budge an inch. We have to encourage change by campaigning to promote Zero Waste. There are more and more people taking up the challenge so it is only a matter of time.
Hi Tracey,
Today I started a campaign, 1 Jar 1 Lid, in which you can buy a jar of coffee, or another jar with seal. Since you probably have a similar lid at home, simply remove it from the purchased jar and take to customer services.
When handing over the item just mention that you have one at home and the one in hand, which is unused, can be sent back to the producer, in my case Kenco.
This is a sustainable solution and I urge everyone to follow suit.
Hi all – more interesting ideas being discussed here and I am glad the topic is sparking solution seeking debate amongst the readers and from the retailers too.
The options to recycle some items in the car parks doesn’t go anywhere near close enough, as many of them are overflowing at the best of times anyway, it’s hardly convenient and they do not take all the idems we refer to, particularly the plastic ring holders.
Let’s keep pressing on and see what happens next.
Thanks to all for your positive energy to finding a solution.
TS
x