Asda ex-boss Clarke: Grocers must stop using plastic

Clarke said that recycled plastic, and the billions invested into it, had failed to stop the material polluting oceans and reaching landfill.

“Go into any supermarket in the country and you will be met by a wall of technicolour plastic. Be it fruit and veg or meat and dairy, plastic encases virtually everything we buy,” Clarke, who headed up Asda for six years, told the Guardian.

“Regardless of how much is invested in Britain’s recycling infrastructure, virtually all plastic packaging will reach landfill or the bottom of the ocean sooner or later.

“Once there, it will remain on the earth for centuries. It is vital that the UK packaging industry and supermarkets work together to turn off the tap.”

“We also know that consumers want the same thing and with heightened public awareness of the dire consequences of unfettered plastic pollution, they are fully in support of the industry’s efforts to make a meaningful change”

Andy Clarke

Clarke said that he had seen a “never-ending stream of initiatives” while at Asda, all of which failed to stop plastic pollution, and that a more radical approach was needed.

He added that plastic-free aisles and innovations such as grass paper, a sustainable packing method, were in line with consumer opinion.

“We also know that consumers want the same thing and with heightened public awareness of the dire consequences of unfettered plastic pollution, they are fully in support of the industry’s efforts to make a meaningful change,” he said.

Plastic pollution shows no sign of abating. An investigation by the Guardian found that consumers buy a million plastic bottles every minute and that plastic production will double in the next 20 years and quadruple by 2050.