THE public response on Saturday (March 9) was ‘fantastic’ to an initiative encouraging shoppers to put the problem of plastic waste back in the hands of supermarkets, say organisers.

‘Plastic-free Chepstow’ volunteers invited shoppers in the town’s Tesco store to remove unnecessary plastic packaging from their shopping and leave it with the store for recycling.

The ‘Mass Unwrap’ – part of a national campaign run by Surfers Against Sewage – was undertaken to highlight the amount of plastic in an everyday shop.

Graham Eele, coordinator of Plastic-free Chepstow, said: “Some 295 billion pieces of plastic are thrown away in the UK every year, and most of these are used for just a few minutes.

“We wanted to draw attention to just how much plastic is involved in the average shopping trip.

“We had a fantastic response from shoppers. Many of them felt really strongly about the issue, and took the opportunity to make suggestions to Tesco.

“For example, many people commented that more fruit and vegetables should be sold loose, with customers encouraged to bring their own bags.

“We are grateful to Tesco for giving us this opportunity. We will be sharing customers’ comments with them and look forward to a dialogue about reducing plastic.”

Ryan Hallett, trading manager for Chepstow Tesco, said: “We can’t make any promises, but we can feed back the comments to head office and tell them how well this event has gone down.

“We would like to see a reduction in single use plastic ourselves, so it is good to see this going on and it went really well looking at the bin.”

Volunteer, Pam Robinson, said: “Plastic packaging is convenient for the big chains and they don’t bear the costs of dealing with it afterwards.

“It’s local authorities through their litter collections, it’s volunteers, it’s turtles who pay the price of all this unnecessary plastic.

“The cost falls on the community and the environment, which is why we are trying to get people to think about it. It’s the first time it has been done around here and we’re delighted with the response, because so many people have been supportive.

“Some of the suggestions have been practical such as selling more vegetables loose.

“If you want to do more to reduce your plastic consumption, buy loose fruit and vegetables where possible using your own bags, bring your own containers for meat, fish and deli products and try to avoid over-packaged items and throwaway cups and water bottles.

“Tesco are happy to accept plastic film and other plastics for recycling and we’d urge you to tell the supermarkets, and your MP or Assembly Member how you feel about the issue.”