Hygiene, minimising food wastage, easy distribution. There are many valid reasons why supermarket shelves are filled with packaged products. The environmental impact of packaging waste

But the amount of packaging waste that’s left behind is a serious threat to our environment.

We celebrated when the plastic bag fee was introduced across Europe. We’re excited to see zero waste shops gaining popularity and we look forward to the ban on certain plastics.

But all too often we, and the media, are quick to condemn the use of all plastic packaging. Should we be so quick to judge without considering the negative effects of other packaging?

Let’s take a more holistic look at the real impact of packaging on the environment.

As consumers, we dispose of tonnes of packaging materials each year. These don’t simply disappear into thin air. Much of our waste is taken to landfill sites. Here, packaging materials including plastic, paper, tin and glass take hundreds of years to decompose. If they do at all.