An influential environmental NGO has called on the government to ban plastic packaging on fruit and vegetables to make food shopping more environmentally friendly.

The Waste and Resources Action Program (Wrap) has called for packaging bans for 21 products, including apples, carrots and tomatoes, to reduce food and plastic waste.

Rob Percival, head of policy at the Soil Association, admitted the process will be “complex”, but added “the case for action is now overwhelming”.

In the UK, the majority of fresh fruit and vegetables are packaged in single-use plastic, with only 19 per cent of fresh produce sold in bulk, compared to 50 per cent in the EU.

Packaged food also leads to high levels of food waste, with 70% of all food waste in the UK coming from the home, according to WRAP.

WRAP suggested a phased approach to the ban.

The approach would start with a ban on plastic for 21 products, followed eventually by the complete removal of packaging from uncut fresh produce.

Wrap said the policy could remove 100,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables from bins per year and 13,000 tonnes of single-use plastic film.

Previous attempts to reduce plastic waste

Wrap’s policy proposal is the latest in a long line of attempts to reduce plastic waste in Britain.

Plastic bags were banned in 2015, while microbeads were also banned in 2018 and 2020 saw the restriction of single-use plastic straws and cotton buds.

Despite the success of plastic bags – their use was reduced by 98% between 2018 and 2023 – other policies have been less successful and plastic use remains high.

The 2018 UK Plastics Pact, led by Wrap, asked signatories to ensure half of all fresh produce would be sold in bulk by 2030, but a 2023 progress report found that even in the supermarket the best performer, the proportion of fresh produce sold in bulk was 30 percent. hundred. The worst-performing grocer, Iceland, sold 2 percent of its products in bulk.

A separate study by DS Smith, published this week, found that more than half of the food and drink products in UK supermarkets are unnecessarily packaged in plastic, with 29.8 billion pieces of avoidable plastic produced each year throughout the UK.

DS Smith chief executive Miles Roberts also called on the government to act: “We believe the government can and should be more demanding of us all – phasing out some plastics to help create a level playing field that encourages innovation, investment and generate income. healthy competition to replace plastic.

City AM has contacted Defra for comment.