Over the summer, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Greenpeace UK conducted a survey of major UK grocery retailers, their use of single-use plastic packaging and their targets to reduce it. 14 responded including all 10 of the largest supermarkets, and 4 leading convenience store operators.

The results, to be released in November, are expected to reveal the volume of single-use plastic packaging each retailer puts onto the market every year, their targets to reduce plastic packaging and their approach to tackling plastic pollution across their supply chains.

The detailed survey, which is believed to be the largest-ever survey of UK grocery retailers and plastic will provide a benchmark for current commitments and actions on curbing plastic pollution. As well as collecting data about volumes of plastic and reduction targets, the survey intends to look at how retailers are planning to meet their targets and to reveal some of the challenges faced by retailers and solutions that are being developed. The results will also highlight where further innovation is needed.

Chair

Ben Webster

Ben Webster is environment editor at The Times, covering the most important environmental stories in the UK and around the world.

Speakers

Catherine Conway, Unpackaged Innovation Ltd.

Catherine set up Unpackaged in 2006 as the world’s first modern zero waste shop. Not only has Unpackaged pioneered a new, desirable, sustainable category in modern retailing; but Catherine’s passion for developing systems to enabling refilling and reuse, within various food sectors has enabled many other businesses to create real and lasting change.

Sarah Balch

Sarah is Senior Ocean Campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and leads the joint campaign calling on UK supermarkets to reduce their plastic footprint, as well as working on EU and UK policy. Sarah has 10 years’ experience in the environmental sector, with recent areas of work including campaigning for the UK microbead ban, the EU circular economy package and plastic strategy, and UK marine and waste policy.

Elena Polisano

Elena is an oceans campaigner at Greenpeace and leads the campaign calling on UK supermarkets to reduce their plastic footprint. She has been at the forefront of Greenpeace’s creative interventions aimed at some of the world’s biggest companies, and recently led the organisation’s campaign that helped secure the government’s commitment to a deposit return scheme for drinks containers in England. Prior to Greenpeace, Elena was an advertising creative.

Formerly a Blue Planet producer, Jo wanted to raise awareness and show the true extent to which plastic has polluted the world’s seas. Accompanied by scientists, conservationists and engineers, Jo set out to some of the most remote parts of the world to document the true extent of plastic pollution and its consequences on ecosystems and human health.

We discuss how both visually stunning and shocking images can be used in environmental activism, and the best tactics to bring about change.

Jo Ruxton worked for the WWF in Asia for 7 years, before joining the BBC Natural History Unit as a Producer, where she was a part of the celebrated Blue Planet Team. Much of her life has been spent filming underwater. She is a co-founder of Plastic Oceans Foundation, and a Producer of and Ambassador for the film A Plastic Ocean

Oliver Steeds is a critically acclaimed international investigative journalist and broadcaster. His films, reports and series have been broadcast by NBC, ABC, Al Jazeera, Channel 4 and Discovery Channels. He is also a founder and Mission Director of Nekton, a new marine institute that explores and protects the deep ocean. Oliver’s investigations have included exposing ongoing chattel slavery in Niger and Mauritania; the theft of malaria treatment drugs in the ‘malarial capital in the world’ in Uganda; grave robbing in Peru; thousands of mentally impaired people being abducted into slavery in China; antiquity smuggling in Israel; hidden ethnic wars in Burma; the lives of 9-11 hijackers in Saudi Arabia, and al Qaeda gun markets in Yemen. He has been nominated for the Rory Peck Impact Award, Best Current Affairs Programme, Livingstone Award for Young Journalists and Overseas Press Awards.

A Plastic Oceans Foundation: http://plasticoceans.uk/