Seventy-seven per cent of people think manufacturers and supermarkets are the worst offenders when it comes to plastic pollution, a study has claimed.
It comes as five major grocers pledged to halve their environmental impact by the end of the decade.
Of those surveyed by Ubamarket, over half said plastic waste was “the single greatest threat to life” at the moment.
More than eight in 10 believed the quantity of plastic packaging on foods should be drastically cut.
READ MORE: Iceland could miss plastic-free target, admits boss
However, the question remains of whether this will translate into consumer action.
When Iceland sold only loose fruit and vegetables in 2019, it was forced to ditch the initiative when sales plummeted by a third.
The retailer recently admitted that it could miss its target of going plastic-free by 2023.
According to Greenpeace, British supermarkets produced around 900,000 tonnes of plastic in 2019.
It was reported this weekend that Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, the Co-op and Marks & Spencer had promised to slash their carbon emissions, food waste and packaging.
“We recognise that a future without nature is a future without food,” they said in a joint statement.
“By 2030 we need to halt the loss of nature.”
Their efforts will be monitored by the WWF, whose chief executive Tanya Steele called food production “one of the biggest threats to our planet”.
Click here to sign up to Grocery Gazette’s free daily email newsletter
