Businesses clinging to plastic
As the corporates promote the way they’re cutting down on plastic, consumers are still calling out ‘overzealous and irresponsible’ companies for drowning them in packaging like this.
Aucklander Hannah Hurst got an environmental fright when she ordered a modular bookcase from Freedom Furniture. Inside, she found each item individually packed in plastic, paper, two layers of polystyrene and two layers of cardboard. ‘‘At first I thought, ‘wow, this is a bit over the top,’’ Hurst said. ‘‘And then I got quite annoyed and angry at how much packaging there was, and the type – so much polystyrene. ‘‘I was also dismayed at the fact that I was expected to dispose of it all.’’ While supermarkets nationwide vow to phase out single use plastic bags, bars and fast food joints promise to cut back on plastic straws, and big business promises to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’, some gaps remain, says Our Seas Our Future scientific adviser Emily Frost. While the packaging and plastic reduction movement was great, organisations often focused on one area while others were overlooked. ‘‘It’s falling by the wayside in terms of trying to reduce other plastic items or packaging within organisations.’’ One of those areas was packaging for delivery. A Sunday Star-Times call for photos of over-packaged items brought in dozens of photos of single books packaged in large boxes with bubble wrap, and individual food items wrapped in plastic. Among them was Aucklander Umut Aydin who says he repeatedly asked his local Countdown to pack his delivered groceries in boxes instead of plastic bags, he still received everything in plastic bags. Aydin said he wasn’t going to order online anymore as a result. ‘‘It’s really frustrating to see how many plastic bags these big companies are wasting.’’ A Countdown spokesperson said the company would eliminate single use plastic bags for online shopping by the end of the year. ‘‘We know our online shoppers are keen to get rid of these bags as much as we are.’’ Boxes weren’t always on hand as the stores flatten and recycle paper and cardboard on-site. A Freedom Furniture spokesperson said the company ‘‘absolutely’’ cared about sustainability and was listening to its customers on the packaging requests. ‘‘We are already looking into how we can reduce the amount of nonrecyclable material used to deliver our product to customers across the country, whilst ensuring it arrives in one piece.’’