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Banish plastic bags: Why online grocery delivery firms are the worst culprits of all
Last updated at 15:22pm on 29.02.08
We ordered 30 items – the equivalent to a family's typical weekly shop – from Ocado, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's to see if efforts are being made to reduce the number of bags handed out to customers.
The results, even from those supermarkets which have trumpeted the need to recycle, were shocking.
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Plastic galore: Amanda Cable with the bags that were delivered via the stores' online services
Ocado and Sainsbury's – the two worse offenders – both delivered ten plastic bags each, containing, on average, just three items per bag.
Sainsbury's sent many single items in their own plastic bags, including a bottle of wine, a box of eggs, a packet of fish fingers and a bag of salad.
The supermarket knows only too well the need to cut down on bags – a recent customer survey revealed just one in ten of its shoppers reuses carrier bags.
Meanwhile, Asda delivered the order in eight separate plastic bags. Once again, many single items were delivered in their own bag, including a bunch of grapes, a carton of eggs and a bottle of wine.
Tesco – the only supermarket to offer shoppers the chance to opt for fewer plastic bags on its online order site – fared better, using five in total.
But again, the store created waste by using an entire plastic bag to wrap just one packet of bleach, and a second for a packet of sausages.
Here's how each order was delivered:
OCADO: TEN BAGS
The online grocer, created in partnership with Waitrose, does not tell customers visiting its website that plastic bags may be returned. The order itself is delivered in colour-coded plastic bags, but I received ten bags for just 32 items.
Most contained only two or three items – a bag of pasta and small box of sea salt in one, and kitchen roll and washing-up liquid in another.
When asked, the courier offered to collect the used bags on the next delivery.
SAINSBURY'S: TEN BAGS
Even though seven items were delivered loose by hand, Sainsbury's still managed to waste ten plastic carrier bags with astonishingly poor packing. No attempt had been made to use fewer bags, or to group similar items together.
One was wasted on a box of six eggs, another contained just one packet of sea bass fillets. Meanwhile, a third held just a packet of salad, and a bottle of wine was delivered alone.
This made Sainsbury's our worst offender for wasting plastic bags. There is nothing on their website to encourage shoppers to re-use their unwanted bags, or to return them to the delivery van. When asked, the delivery lady said that my bags could be collected on my next delivery.
ASDA: EIGHT BAGS
Three shopping bags contained just single items – a packet of eggs, a bottle of wine and a bunch of grapes. While one bag was sensibly packed with six items, Asda could have used half the number for this delivery.
It was, however, the only service where the courier agreed to wait and take my unwanted plastic bags away for recycling.
TESCO: FIVE BAGS
This was the only supermarket delivery service to offer online shoppers the chance to opt for "less bags". However, even after choosing this option, only 17 of the items were delivered loose.
Once again, most were sent in plastic bags with only one or two of the groceries to a bag. Two of the plastic bags contained single items, another two contained just two items each, and our "fullest" bag had just five items inside.
When asked, the delivery man said the bags could be picked up on my next delivery.
Reader views (5)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
I'm sorry, but I don't want my bleach bagged with my sausages! If they did this it would only be another scandal in the news!
- Simon, Detroit, USA/London, UK
As always the left hand of government doesn't know what the right hand is doing. The online delivery companies are forced BY LAW to segregate different classes of produce - meat, non-meat, non-edible, etc - even though personal shoppers at supermarkets will mix them without any harm being done.
- Nigel, London
As they're being delivered together to one location why do they not use cardboard boxes? These could either be returned on the next delivery or simply recycled with other household waste. Surely the drivers can cope with carrying something a little heavier a few feet for the good of the environment?
- Mark, London
Some of this comes down to basic food hygiene where different food groups need to be stored seperately:
raw meat
raw fish
cooked meat
chilled fruit and veg (such as prepared salads)
fresh fruit and vegetables
dairy produce
bread
Eggs and delicate things cannot be placed with anything heavy
more than 2 or 3 bottles (whether wine, fizzy drinks or fruit juice) will split a bag, as I know from a painful foot injury.
So most shopping requires at least 8 bags before you start on quantities.
- Graham, Reading, England
What happened to the humble brown paper bag which was in use in the 1970's. We used to get these from what was then Safeways in Wimbledon High Street and used to then transfer them to our own shopping bags if they were heavy. We also recycled the bags using them to contain potatoes and other veg etc and also seeds and bulbs gathered from the garden. And this was well before all the publicity of recycling.
- Monica, UK
