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IRELAND’S ISSUES WHEN it comes to dealing with climate change are well known.
Minister for Climate Action and Environment Richard Bruton said late last year that the country is “far off course” and “way off target”. He said a “huge step up” is needed from government to play its part in cutting emissions.
The issue came to the fore last week with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying he was cutting down on his meat intake due to health and climate concerns. This was followed by a damning report by the EAT-Lancet Commission on how red meat and sugar consumption must halve by 2050 to save the planet.
Another area where we can cut down on the effect we have on the environment is our use of plastics.
Last year, Bruton’s predecessor Denis Naughten wrote to all supermarket CEOs and called on them to reduce their use of non-recyclable plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables.
Plastic packaging
In this FactCheck, we’ll look at the policy of supermarkets when it comes to plastic waste, and whether or not they’re required to take the packaging you leave at the checkout.
Last week, novelist Sinead Moriarty urged people to leave unnecessary plastic at the supermarket and said “they have to take it”. “We need to stop the overuse of plastic packaging,” she added.
Last year, an initiative from Friends of the Earth urged people to leave their unwanted plastic packaging at their local supermarket for a ‘Shop and Drop’ day of action.
In response, supermarkets made provisions for people to dump their packaging in store on the day.
Friends of the Earth’s head of mobilisation Meaghan Carmody said: “The supermarkets know we are coming and most are putting out bins for people for people to put the unwanted packaging in. Now we need them to make lasting changes that give customers an easy way to choose less plastic in future.”
So what’s the story here? Can you leave your plastic packaging at the checkout, and do supermarkets have to take it?
Packaging
To initially check whether there was a legal basis for supermarkets being required to accept plastic packaging and recycling it, TheJournal.ie contacted the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.
A spokesperson said that the obligations for all producers of all packaging, including retailers, are set out in the European Union (Packaging) Regulations 2014.
“Their obligations vary on the basis of the amount of packaging they place on the market and on whether or not they are a member of the national packaging compliance scheme, Repak,” the spokesperson said.
A major producer is a producer who places in excess of 10 tonnes of packaging on the market a year and has an annual turnover of more than €1m (Regulation 4(3) refers). Such producers are obliged to take back packaging from customers (Regulation (10(1) refers).
However, producers who are members of Repak are not obliged to do so (see Regulation 17). Their obligations in this regard are carried out on their behalf by the Scheme, which provides funding for the collection of the domestic recycling bin.
Let’s break that down.
So, when a company produces more than 10 tonnes of packaging a year and has an annual turnover of over €1 million, they must take packaging away from customers.
But, if you’re a member of Repak, this provision doesn’t apply. So a member of Repak doesn’t have to take packaging from their customers.
And it so happens that many of Ireland’s supermarkets are members of Repak – a not-for-profit set up by Irish businesses to help coordinate the recycling of products they produce.
Supermarkets aren’t the only contributors to Repak. Members also include the likes of Diageo, Eason, Dulux, Glanbia, McDonalds, Microsoft, Primark and Unilever.
These companies produce packaging and plastic waste in various forms, and all are charged a fee to be a member of Repak.
Repak says the fee paid by its members is used to fund the collection and recovery of waste packaging through registered recovery operators (the people who come and collect your rubbish for sorting and separation) across Ireland.
So, through the likes of green bins getting collected, supermarkets who are members of Repak are helping to fund the recycling of the packaging they create – since packaging used by consumers will end up in green bins.
So the likes of Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes and Super Valu are contributing towards this recycling by being a Repak member.
Supermarkets’ say
TheJournal.ie also contacted some of the major supermarkets to ask what their policy was in this regard, whether a customer could leave plastic packaging at the checkout, and we received responses from Tesco and Aldi.
A spokesperson for Tesco said the company is “working hard to reduce the use of plastics through working with suppliers and by minimising plastic packaging in Tesco own label products”.
The spokesperson added: “We know that packaging is a growing concern for our customers and so we’re keeping this under review.
Our focus is on reducing plastic packaging in Tesco own label products and we’re working with our suppliers to stimulate design innovation. We are a member of Repak and we are already funding the recycling of packaging consumers buy in store.
An Aldi spokesperson said that it had a wide-ranging packaging and plastics reduction plan that was being implemented across its Irish operations.
“We have committed to ensuring that 100% of our own label packaging will be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022 and achieving a 50% reduction (relative to 2015 levels), in packaging across our own-label products by 2025,” the spokesperson said.
It is also our intention to discontinue the sale of single use plastics from our own label range this year.
Late last year, Lidl said it was also planning to stop selling single-use plastics like those for fruit and veg.
While saying they are committed to reducing the use of single-use plastics and indicating measures they are taking to fund the recycling of packaging through their commitments to Repak, the retailers stopped short of saying that they must accept plastics from customers in store.
The retailers who responded to our queries did not directly answer whether, as a rule, they accepted plastics from customers in their stores.
Thomas Burke, the director of Retail Ireland – a lobby group that is part of Ibec – told TheJournal.ie that Irish retailers had been working hard over recent months to review their use of plastic in the packaging and transport of products they sell.
“In response to consumer requests and in line with environmental best practice, retailers have made a range of commitments to ensure all plastic packaging placed on the market is recyclable within the coming years and conforms with emerging legislation in the area as laid out in the EU Directive on Single Use Plastics,” he said.
However, Burke added: “Retail Ireland would be concerned at the prospect of any dumping of plastic packaging in our member’s stores.”
He said that its members already fund the collection and recycling of all of the plastic packaging they place on the market through Repak.
“Amongst other initiatives, this funding pays for the nationwide kerbside collection of household green bins for recyclable materials,” he said.
Verdict
Many supermarkets have said they’re committed to tackling the issue of plastic packaging but there is no provision within the law requiring them to accept customers’ packaging in store as they are members of Repak.
But while they may not be required to take it, there is already a precedent for them doing so, as last year’s initiative from Friends of the Earth demonstrated.
So, when it comes down to it, it’s a case that while supermarkets don’t technically have to accept packaging that customers wish to recycle right then and there at the checkout under the law, for example, they do help to provide the means whereby its customers can recycle their products.
As the case of the initiative last year shows, they can choose to offer those facilities.
The claim was that supermarkets have to accept plastic packaging from their products in their stores. While not obliged to accept it specifically in their stores, being a member of Repak means that they pay a fee which goes towards the recycling of the products they produce.
As a result, we rate this claim: Mostly FALSE
As per our verdict guide, this means “There is an element of truth in the claim, but it is missing critical details or context. Or, the best available evidence weighs against the claim.”
TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.
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I’m so impatient. All that scrolling to find the answer
I just jumped straight to the comments… What was the verdict?
@George Weener: I am lost,so the supermarkets pay Repak for the collection of packaging “Amongst other initiatives, this funding pays for the nationwide kerbside collection of household green bins for recyclable materials,” Well, clearly one of us is being swindled out of our money as the householder is also paying for the collection of our green bins, would Repak care to comment………..didn’t think so, paid in full….twice.
@Vonny: ive a mad idea, lads. Howabout we unite on this one thing…just one thing for now. This problem would be solved in a day if we were united on just this one thing. Everyone leaves their plastic at their store… then we’d see the real power of unity. Divided we fall? We fell so long ago, all we know now is being walked on…
In the Netherlands every supermarket has a skip In the car park for packaging,
Legal requirement,
We should follow suit.
@Niall Power: great idea but what do you do about the ones who’ll dump their household rubbish it aswell ?
@Niall Power: What does this achieve? It just saves you transporting it home. The packaging was still manufactured all the same.
If supermarkets have things in packaging so unnecessary that consumers are stripping it off in the car park, the issue is not to provide them with a skip, it’s to stop packaging that way.
Providing a skip is arguably worse, because it’s a tacit acknowledgement by the supermarkets that the packaging may be excessive, but then deciding to keep it with a handy place to throw it away.
@Gerard: supermarkets will get fed up with needing to have waste collected more often and pushing manufacturers and suppliers to offer products with less packaging is the idea I think
@Darcy: report them for fly tipping and hand over your CCTV footage to the authorities to help them in their investigation?
@Karen Wellington: of course it’s that easy ..ever see the lengths people go to when doing something illegal ?
@Darcy: not to mention that it’s not illegal to put your rubbish in a bin provided for customer use.
@Niall Power: less plastic = no need for skip in the car park.
@Darren Mulligan: supermarkets are paid for there collected, plastic and cardboard waste.
@Dave O’Keeffe: it is. There’s a law that can get you fined if you put something in a bin for public use if it’s suspected that it should have gone in your domestic bin. You throw nappies in a bin provide for excess packaging and you’ll be done for illegal dumping
@Darren Byrne: maybe a bin on public property but not outside a shop or on a forecourt. Here’s how I know, some time ago I was working at a petrol station and I noticed someone leave a big bag next to the bin. Went out had, had a look, it was about 10kg of raw chicken. Got on to a litter warden that I’ve known for years and also got on to the council, same answer for both. It’s not illegal.
@Niall Power: dont see how that solves anything .. out of mind out of sight,
this whole article is about an initiative of someone or some group highlighting an issue to supermarkets .. not solving anything .. nor providing a solution either – just highlighting an issue, and not all that well in my opinion
leaving the plastic in the supermarket .. its sitll plastic its still going to waste its still being consumed, .any them buying it and leaving it is the same as them buying it and taking it with them, the same facilities to recycle it (if any of it can be recycled exist whether they do it or the supermarkets do it.
There is only one effective way to cut plastic waste in supermarkets, and that is to not buy the products that have it .. pick the option that doesn’t have it .. or go to a shop/market that doesn’t have the packaging ..practically impossible for most
@Darren Mulligan: or just charge you more for it and carry on regardless
One of the most advanced steps in environmental issues
Start stripping the plastic wrapping off cucumbers that HAS a skin
@Quentin Moriarty: The plastic keeps it fresh for longer. I do agree that plastic packaging is unnecessary most of the time.
@Quentin Moriarty: Bananas !!!!
@Lily Martin: actually it doesnt keep t fresh for longer , cucumber skins need to breath – wrapping them in plastic prevents that and makes them ‘sweat ‘ – the ‘sweating ‘ causes damp which in turn causes mould , cucumbers last just a long without plastic wrapping as they do with – keeping them in a fridge also deteriorates them quicker ,they should be ket in a cool dry place with good air circulation – a veg rack or similar storage is more suitable .. there is no proven reason to wrap ANY fruit or vegetable in plastic other than to make it easier for supermarkets to store . same goes for pulses . legumes ,brassica’s , root veg ,soft fruits , any fruit with an outer skin – or potatoes . ALL the fruit and veg we buy could just as easily be sold in cardboard packs or paper bags or even ‘nets’ – it is only for the stores convenience that plastic bags are used as its easier to pre weigh and portion them for sale .
I melt my leftover plastic into a little ball and throw it into the river.
@Toby Fish: Dreadful ‘joke’.
@Orla Smith: you should have given a trigger warning. Didn’t mean to offend you. I hope you don’t think that I’m a Nazi?
@Toby Fish: LOL, I did Nazi that coming!!
@Pixie McMullen: Enough with the Hitler jokes. They make me Fuhrer-ious.
@Pixie McMullen: Enough with the Hitler jokes. They make me Fuhrer-ious.
@Toby Fish: All Reich mate
@Pixie McMullen: it was fun but she will be back soon to be outraged. Laters
@Pixie McMullen: it was fun but she will be back soon to be outraged. Laters
@Toby Fish: asshxxx
@Orla Smith: Your accounts interact with each other way too much. Stop making it so obvious.
Jaysis. That was actually embarrassing to witness
It doesn’t matter whether the supermarkets are legally-obliged to accept it, if significant numbers of people are going to take the plastic off products before leaving the supermarket, the supermarkets will ultimately change their behaviour and force their suppliers to change their behaviour in relation to packaging products in single-use plastic.
@Kevin Farrell: they won’t. The whole reason they have it is to reduce staff numbers and waste. Far easier and cheaper to just let customers take it off and collect it afterwards
@Kevin Farrell: maybe by 2050 … whether they have to collect the plastic or the customer does, wishy/washy slow burn approach .. the biggest incentive they have to reduce the packaging on their products is the loss of sales – maintaining sales with packaging collection that they are already paying for and that they are not technically or all that clearly obliged to take on location according to the article ? thats quite a bit less of an incentive.
@Kevin Farrell: No, it won’t make a lick of difference. The packaging either goes in your green bin at home or in the supermarket’s green dumpsters. You have already BOUGHT the packaging. They don’t care whether or not you take it home or leave it there.
According to the convoluted script above, I gather that the only person or entity being penalized for purchasing goods which are plastic wrapped is the customer and they’re penalized twice; once when they buy the wrapped product and again if they use a garbage disposal company as they charge for their services. It’s a massive scandal and ripoff and the only 2 groups profiting are, ironically, Repak and the garbage disposal companies. The local authorities should be responsible for household collections which should have been included in the property tax, but of course vested interests win out again in our corrupt little country.
@Liam Mernagh: So true.
@Liam Mernagh: agree on the idea of property tax, I have seen it work in another country where its put to use for the exact area its collected for the right services of that area, ie rubbish,sewage, roads public spaces and school in the area.
it also helps keep house prices in check or more naturally market driven. or at least keeps it away from being credit driven .. lets hope we never get back to that.
Don’t quite agree on the idea we are being ripped off.
if the packaging say was 100% recyclable – you would still be paying for it
and where as its probably impossible to shop somewhere where are options to buy without the packaging .. there is scope to do this in some way or for some part of the weekly shop for most. this will hurt the supermarkets/retailers using packaging most and reward the ones that use less.
Strip off the plastic as you move the shopping from the trolley into your car. Leave the plastic in the trolley and just return the lot to the trolley bay.
@Ger Byrne: leaving the poor person working on the trolley bay to clean up rubbish you ? Well done. .
@Ger Byrne:
Great,
I do that on a regular basis, I usually put all the packaging into one of their small plastic bags, knot it and leave it in the trolly:
@Darcy: *your rubbish
@Darcy: not my rubbish. If they stopped using the Non recyclable wrap on product, we would not have the problem.
Londis had Single Turnip/Swedes shrink wrapped in plastic recently.
@Ger Byrne: dress it up whatever way you want to but you bought the shopping and left the store with it so its your rubbish that you’re dumping in the trolley for someone to clean up after you .
@Darcy: That’s sorta the point Darcy. A protest is a cost and an inconvenience for the supermarket. That’s the only way to force them to make a change.
@Ger Byrne: or they just charge us all more for it in the price .. and we continue to consume it ..
You buy so you recycle when you’re home its not up to the supermarket or store to do your recycling for you
@Carol Mc Cabe: Most of the LDPE plastic isn’t even currently recycled. Better off to reduce than to recycle.
@Carol Mc Cabe: If they had to dispose of the packaging and pay to do it you’d see them hurry up the reduction of plastics pretty quick.
@Carol Mc Cabe: First, just no. Second, this is primarily about single use non recyclable plastics.
@Gerry McGuinness: they already do pay for its disposal either through repak or other collection, They can simply pass this price on to us.
They have either beind doing this already, Or the cost is not prohibitive enough to sell produce with less or no single use plastic.
Biggest incentive they have is to lose sales .. they can’t pass that on to anyone .. it also means the retailers that sell with less packaging are rewarded .. no need for laws to be written ..no need for lame demonstrations such as the one in this article .. like anything worth doing its usually hard to do
Fully realise for most or many its not possible to do this without a good bit of effort or cost.
but its up to us, do we want to pay now? .. or do we want to pay later?
Near me are 5 supermarkets – Tesco, Centra, Lidl, Aldi and Dunnes. The only one that sells loose veg is Dunnes. Tesco used to but all their veg seems to be packaged now
@Rebekah Corbett: I buy loose Tomatoes, Potatoes, Mushrooms, Oranges etc as i generally shop for one and don`t like waste. Then i put them all into plastic bags and bring them home, can`t get through the checkout with a handful of mushrooms, 2 Oranges and a Tomato,Don`t get me started on those self checkout things
@Pixie McMullen: I usually only shop for one too which is why I do most of my shopping in Dunnes now.
@Pixie McMullen: I bring a paper bag for the loose veg and they remove the items at the checkout and weigh them. For heavy items like potatoes and fruit I use a hemp bag.
@Pixie McMullen: I bring a paper bag for the soft veg and fruit and a hemp bag for the heavier ones like potatoes apples etc.
@Rebekah Corbett: I was going to say that about Tesco. Their statement that they are trying to reduce plastic packaging is just pure bull. Every single fresh food item that used to be available unwrapped is now sold in prepacked plastic containers. Want one apple for your lunch? Good luck with that. Need a handful of loose mushrooms for that one recipe? Yeah right. It’s a joke
Do it anyway. What are they going to do about it?!
@Bi88les: Take follow you out and hand it back to you, I’ve seen that done to people leavign rubbish on tills before. Or is you get abusive about it bar you from the shop
I think the meaning of Recycle got lost somewhere,most of what is produced is not recyclable…
Eh… taking it off in the supermarket doesn’t do anything anyway. The issue is not transporting a few extra grams of plastic home. It’s that it was produced unnecessarily.
It *probably* would encourage them to stop using so much. But in and of itself, it’s not really doing anything for the environment.
@Gerard: exactly. The point is they need to stop selling fruit and veg with so much packaging
I regularly see people putting BANANAS in a plastic bag. Crazy
@Aisling: Bananas!
Wait hold on a moment, the main problem plastic is ‘soft’ plastic, you cannot put this into the recycling bin as it currently can’t be recycled (in Ireland anyway). So. I think, this needs to be reviewed by the Journal as to who is taking what plastic, if it is rigid/hard plastic it can be recycled in your bin, if it’s soft it cannot and goes in black bin. In that case can the soft plastic be left behind.
I remember years ago the fruit and veg would be loose and the super markets had self service scales so you could weigh them and print the barcode yourself. That system could be brought back
@Darren Tully: I imagine printing the barcode yourself was stopped due to abuse of the system.
Varadkar “cutting down his meat intake”
@Dan Black: Wink wink nudge nudge.
What are they going to do, call the litter warden? If it gets them to take action on reducing wasteful packaging (by lobbying their suppliers) it’s worth doing.
Aldi speaking out of both sides of their mouth. They have added to the range of plastic packaged bananas in recent months. Shameful.
Arguably you are not buying the plastic so just leave it there. The label says “bananas” not “bananas plus plastic wrap”.
Leaving it at the supermarket in bins only moves the problem rather than remove the problem. We need to stop producing so many plastics and in particular disposable plastics, go back to papers and glass.
Ireland is an embarrassment compared with other countries when it comes to carbon footprints and other environmental issues.
1) Buy stuff with no packaging
2) Do you really need it?
3) Leave unnecessary packaging at checkout, don’t ask for permission.
https://www.onebrownplanet.com/life_before_plastic/ What comes around goes around.Maybe we should go back to our old ways?But then the plastics industry is huge and the reduction in production would have massive commercial implications.
The trouble is members of Repak may be paying towards the cost of recycling of their packaging but most of their packaging is not recyclable. It is just window dressing to make them look responsible.
@Ray Noble: is there any alternative company to ‘repak’ or are they the only company to operate this service ? are their not laws about companies having a monopoly on trade ? also if ‘repak ‘(as reported) is ”paying for the collection of household recycle bins” why does my bin company charge me for the same service ? seems like a big scam to me -buy hey ! whats new !
What about the plastic in food.
@TamuMassif2019: margarine – just a few chemical steps from crude oil !
What difference to the environment would it make if we left packaging at till or brought it home and recycled?
Supermarkets could in theory offer to recycle your unwanted plastic and cardboard packaging.
Plastics however would need to be sorted into clear and coloured in order to be accepted for recycling.
Sadly in practice, there are always going to be people who are just too lazy to sort their unwanted packaging and just throw it into one container.
So Sinead Moriarty is littering the supermarket…hope they throw her out the next time
Do away with breakfast cereal boxes! They can ship crisps half way around the world with them being crushed or needing a cardboard box, can do same with cereals!
The people who think that leaving their packaging in the supermarket is going to make the retailer stop using excess packaging, aren’t thinking at all. The packaging either goes in your green bin at home or in the supermarket’s green skips. The supermarket doesn’t care if you throw it away, or they do – you have already BOUGHT it.
The only way to get them to change is to buy products that use little or no packaging at all. Supermarkets only sell what people will buy – if their packaging stops people buying a product, that packaging will be gotten rid of.
Don’t start stripping the plastic off your food in the shop. All you are doing is making more work for the staff to clean up after you.
Outside every German supermarket there is a large bin for unnecessary packaging (cardboard, plastic) the German shopper can deposit it in the bin.
Well my conclusion is that they can only refuse to accept recycle. All else is rubbish they are creating.
Tescos have recently replaced their own brand of cardboard boxes of dishwasher tablets with plastic packs of same.
The trouble is members of Repak may be paying towards the cost of recycling of their packaging but most of their packaging is not recycleable. It is just window dressing to make them look responsible.
Repak has always given big shops a get out with packaging.
have your say