Close to four in five (78%) UK shoppers believe that supermarkets still use too much single-use plastic, a new survey by Nature 2030 has found.
According to the environmental campaign group’s study, 69% believe that big retail chains put profits ahead of reducing their environmental footprint, while half (49%) said that they are more likely to shop at supermarkets which stamp out single-use plastic altogether.
As the study noted, UK supermarkets generate an estimated 30 billion pieces of unnecessary plastic annually, worse than France, Germany, and Spain, while some 12 million single-use plastic bottles were sold across the UK in 2024.
With this in mind, close to three fifths (57%) of consumers would support additional taxes on big companies that use single-use plastic packaging that cannot be recycled, according to the survey.
Corporate self-regulation
Leading UK retailers currently sit on the board of the UK’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which Nature 2030 says raises fears about corporate self-regulation – some retailers have lobbied to postpone the introduction of the DRS, currently due to launch in October 2027.
“Big supermarkets are deliberately stalling the action we need to see and must not be left to mark their own homework when it comes to tackling plastic pollution,” commented Dominic Dyer, chair of Nature 2030.
“With the biggest high street retailers now sitting on the board of Britain’s recycling scheme for single-use bottles, there are serious concerns about whether they will put profits before environmental protection.”
‘Turning a blind eye’
Elsewhere, Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and Plastic Health Council said that Britain’s “plastic crisis can no longer be ignored”, accusing supermarkets of “turning a blind eye to the mountains of waste they produce each year, and they will not clean up their act alone; ministers must legislate.
“While the government is taking action to boost the recycling single-use bottles though a deposit return scheme, this is a drop in the ocean. Plastic production is set to rise exponentially, and beverage containers are a fraction of plastic waste, if we are to see any real change, wholesale reduction in the production of plastic is desperately needed for the health of not only the planet but our bodies.” Read more here.
