I avoided single-use plastic for a week – it should not be this hard or expensive
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Greenpeace says that the UK produces more plastic waste per person than almost any other country. So why do shops still make it so tough for individuals to ditch the stuff?
By Emma Henderson
The cashier at the plastic-free shop is talking me through their incoming deliveries. ‘Most come in paper or hessian sacks, but some still arrive with some plastic,’ he says, a little meekly. Around me, the shop is packed with containers of dried food, confectionery and spices. They sell these items as refillable so customers can buy without plastic packets, but before they’re on the shelf it seems that some things (like dried fruits) still arrive in them to keep them fresh.
I am not normally this interested in the logistics of packaging but I was in the middle of an experiment to try to live without single-use plastic – starting with just a week-long stint to test the waters. While at first it felt virtuous to be in this plastic-free shop, I was starting to worry that while the optics might be ...
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