Customers remove unnecessary plastics at mass unwrap event at Leamington supermarket

On July 13 Plastic-Free Leamington and Warwick partnered with Morrisons in Leamington for a ‘mass unwrap’ where volunteers unwrapped the plastic from people’s shopping.

Sarah Kenny-Levick and Jo Lally co-chairs of Plastic- Free Leamington and Warwick said: “We were pleasantly surprised and grateful for how many stopped and were interested in removing all the single-use plastic from their shopping after paying.

“The majority of people stopped and some people had come to Morrisons especially to support our event – so Morrisons would have had an increase in sales.

“We must have had between 120 to 150 people stop with us.

“By the end of the two hours we had two big trolleys rammed full of unnecessary waste, which shows just how much is created when you think about how many supermarkets are across the globe.

“We hope this will help people think about how much unnecessary plastic they are buying, and for retailers and manufacturers to accelerate their plans to eliminate the unnecessary plastic packaging and get creative with sustainable alternatives for necessary packaging. The unwrapped products were simply decanted into shoppers’ own bags and/or containers.

“All the plastic we collected went back to Morrisons for their normal bailing and recycling process.

“Morrisons were very helpful and some staff helped us on the day too, a special mention to Babs, the community manager, who worked with us for the whole two hours.

“We will be looking to hold another unwrapping event in the autumn as this was so successful.”