Can you imagine life without plastic packaging? British Prime Minister Teresa May recently declared a high-profile “declaration of warfare” to plastic packaging: elimination of all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years. To achieve this goal, the consumption tax for plastic bags of 5 pence, which was only collected in supermarkets in the past, will be extended to all stores in the UK. The supermarket will add plastic-free packaging channels for bulk food, and even proposes that the cover of the coffee cup also contains plastic. The ingredients will therefore be charged 25 pence for the “Latte Tax.”
The “starting gun” for this “new 25-year green plan” has only just begun. Everyone likes to be a fashionable person and enthusiastically joined this “battle.” According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), not long ago, the largest retail company in the United Kingdom, Marks & Spencer, spoke to the public because of over-packaging of cauliflower: two cauliflowers, one lemon and one herb were sold for £2. These fruits and vegetables that can be bought in the market for only 69 pence, due to the addition of exquisite plastic trays and packaging, soared in price, the British netizens jokingly called it “cacao steak” on Twitter.
The British public’s enthusiasm for resisting plastic packaging is not limited to this. According to the British “spectator” magazine, more and more customers have given up shopping at supermarket chains such as Tesco, and they prefer to buy home-grown ingredients at the farmers’ market. Many consumers have put on muslin bags and go shopping. Some governments Officials started holding recyclable bamboo coffee cups. At the same time, major supermarkets are not far behind. Tesco will phase out disposable plastic bags in all its stores, and Marks & Spencer announced that it will no longer sell plastic cauliflowers. “Onlookers” quipped: “If this trend continues, in the near future, whoever is holding a plastic bag in the street may be glaring at it?”
Of course, there are also British people and companies who are passive about restricting plastic packaging. For example, some people rushed to buy plastic collection buckets in advance to prevent them from getting off the shelf. Some supermarkets are expecting this limited plastic storm to rush past, so that they can put the good cauliflower on a plastic plate and put it on the shelf again. Some retailers also sighed to the Guardian that finding alternatives to plastic packaging was already an old problem for their “predecessors”.
What kind of packaging can replace plastic? Are they more environmentally friendly than plastic? The “bystander” magazine article states that plastic substitutes may cause more environmental problems. Maybe muslin bag, nonwoven bag and paper bag wholesale or retail are good choices!