‘Plastic expiry date’ stickers have started appearing on supermarket products as environmentalists attempt to highlight the impact of packaging.
The stickers, which are currently being added to products in London, feature an ‘expiry date’ for the plastic and say ‘please recycle me’.
The date is 500 years from when the sticker was first printed has been added to show that plastic takes anything from 500 to 1,000 years to decompose.
Environmental campaigners Gagandeep Jhuti and Joe Foale-Groves created the Plastic Expiry Date stickers to call out supermarkets ‘on their own turf’ and highlight the impact of single-use plastics.
They want supermarkets to either remove single-use plastic completely from product lines, or add the expiry date so consumers can ‘make an informed choice’.
Scroll down for video
‘Plastic expiry date’ stickers have started appearing on supermarket products as environmentalists attempt to highlight the impact of packaging
The duo say that plastics haven’t existed for long enough to have broken down yet, which means that all plastic ever made is still around on the planet.
They said they wanted to help shoppers think beyond their next craving, and realise plastic packaging lives on longer ‘than the time taken to devour a meal deal’.
‘Gag and Joe’ say they were inspired by the work of Greenpeace and others to highlight the impact single use plastic has on the environment.
So far they have added the stickers to ‘meal deal’ style products in central London supermarkets including Coca-Cola bottles and fruit packed in plastic
So far they have added the stickers to ‘meal deal’ style products in central London supermarkets including Coca-Cola bottles and fruit packed in plastic.
‘The supermarkets haven’t noticed yet as we’re pretty stealthy and meal deal items sell so quickly that the stickers don’t linger in store for too long,’ Joe said.
‘We are hoping that supermarkets, along with reducing their quantities of plastic, will warn consumers more clearly about the long term effects of plastic, especially when the plastic is non-recyclable such as plastic film.’
The focus has been on major supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Boots and M&S – in busy central London areas where people need a quick lunch.
The stickers, are currently being added to products in London, feature an ‘expiry date’ for the plastic and say ‘plastic expiry date 14/01/2499 please recycle me’
‘We agree that more needs to be done to reduce our reliance on plastic’, a Sainsbury’s spokesperson said in a statement.
‘That’s why we’ve made the ambitious commitment of halving the amount of plastic we use by 2025. We would love to see other retailers following us by making similar commitments.’
Marks and Spencer says the priority is to remove and reduce its use of plastic packaging and has already phased out 2,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from the across the business.
‘We’re focused on helping our customers to reuse and ensuring all our packaging is widely recyclable by 2022,’ a spokesperson said.
The stickers have mainly been added to lunch deal products in Farringdon, Shoreditch, Bank, Fitzrovia and Soho.
‘Most recently we’ve particularly targeted Coca-Cola products after their statement of refusal to get rid of plastic bottles,’ said Gag.
They started adding the stickers at the start of January and so far have put over 1,000 of them on products found on supermarket shelves.
They’ve also made them available to print online.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says the government is committed to leading the global effort to tackle plastic pollution.
A spokesperson says they have already cut plastic bag use by 90 per cent through the 5p charge, introduced a ban on microbeads and are working to introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks containers.
The focus has been on major supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Boots and M&S, focusing on busy central London areas where people need a quick lunch
They started adding the stickers at the start of January and so far have put over 1,000 of them on products found on supermarket shelves.
On their website the group describe a dystopian future about 500 years from now.
In it ‘animals can be tried in court, prisons are overflowing with pigeons and the plastic water bottle purchased in 2020 has finally started to decompose.’
‘We’re used to seeing expiry dates on food to remind us to eat something sooner, so why not print expiry dates on plastic,’ the pair said.
‘Supermarkets all claim they want to reduce plastic, but in the last year the top 10 supermarkets actually increased the amount of un-recyclable plastics.’
They said they wanted to help shoppers think beyond their next craving, and realise plastic packaging lives on longer ‘than the time taken to devour a meal deal’
They are not affiliated with any specific organisation but say that environmental groups are all working towards the same sustainable goal.
They say they’ve been most inspired by the acts of individuals who have pledged to reduce their single-use plastic consumption.
‘We want people to take notice of how long their single-use plastic purchases actually last on the planet.
‘If you take a look around, we don’t seem too concerned about throwing away plastics. Britain still fails to recycle most of its plastic waste.’
Waitrose says it is working to reduce unnecessary plastics from its products – both own brand and by working with other manufacturers.
‘We’re removing and redesigning packaging to cut the amount of plastic we use,’ a spokesperson for the company said.
‘By 2021 we will reduce the use of single-use plastic in our own-brand packaging by 20 per cent’.
HOW MUCH PLASTIC POLLUTION DO WE BREATHE IN PER DAY?
Plastic pollution has become so widespread that we may be inhaling up to 130 tiny pieces a day, research found.
Fibres from fleece and polyester clothing and particles from urban dust and car tyres are the biggest sources of so-called microplastics in the air.
Microplastics are small plastic pellets ranging in size from 0.5 millimetres that have accumulated in the marine environment following decades of pollution. They include polyester fibres generated from laundry
The tiny specks are lighter than air and could cause asthma, heart disease and auto-immune conditions, the research, published in December 2017, found.
The study, a review of a number of recent plastics studies, revealed washing a single polyester garment can produce 1,900 plastic fibres.
Plastic pollution has become so widespread that we may be inhaling up to 130 tiny pieces a day, research found (stock image)
This plastic pollution is on the rise as more and more synthetic clothing is produced.
While only people working with plastic fibres are known to develop respiratory problems, experts say the pollution is so widespread that it may now pose a risk to everyone’s health.
The study’s author, Dr Joana Correia Prata, of Fernando Pessoa University in Portugal, said: ‘The evidence suggests that an individual’s lungs could be exposed to between 26 and 130 airborne microplastics a day, which would pose a risk for human health, especially in susceptible individuals, including children.
‘Exposure may cause asthma, cardiac disease, allergies and auto-immune diseases.’
