Eco Friends take recycling message to Waitrose

A team of eco warriors visited Waitrose in Thatcham with a mission to educate customers on how to recycle excess packaging from items bought from supermarkets. The team from West Berkshire Eco Friends was encouraging customers to leave their unwanted plastic packaging once they’d done their shopping. Customers were removing excess wrapping from their shopping and leaving it in a trolley with the Eco Friends.

Samantha Carpenter from Eco Fiends says: “Most people already recycle their packaging. Our point is that it’s a shame that we have to go to all the effort of recycling it. If it didn’t exist in the first place, then we not have to go to all the effort of recycling it.”

Standing next to a trolley full of excess packing which customers had left, Samantha used an example of a plastic wrapper used to cover a multi-pack of cans containing a popular soft drink.

“Other vendors tend to have their multiple packs covered in cardboard, which is not as damaging to the environment and is easily recyclable, whereas this plastic will be in the environment forever,” she explained.

According to Eco Friends, although some of the packaging used in supermarket products is not recyclable through the kerbside recycling at home, most supermarkets will now take the packaging and ensure it is properly recycled.

To learn more about recycling and sustainable living or to get involved, you can contact Eco Friends West Berkshire at their website https://www.eco-friends.org.uk