Strip the fruit! Chronicle of a war against plastic in supermarkets

Have you ever heard of the hashtag #desnudalafruta on social media?

It is a campaign launched by
Greenpeace
together with other organizations within the movement
#BreakFreeFromPlastic

(get rid of plastic).
Since 2018 they started with this wonderful campaign worldwide making a wake-up call to plastic producing and consuming companies. In fact, emphasis was placed on the large supermarket chains, which offer food unnecessarily wrapped in plastic, generating a large volume of waste, which generates more pollution in our oceans.

The odyssey continues, moreover, because the vast majority of these companies, worldwide, were not taking responsibility for the damage they cause, nor did they offer many alternatives to their customers.

The
boom
boom: problems and consequences

In the 50’s there was the
boom
plastic, and plastic production has been increasing year after year, reaching 322 million tons (equivalent to one billion elephants) in 2015. It should be noted that this figure does not include synthetic fiber used in clothing, ropes and other materials, representing 61 million tons in 2016.

At this rate, by 2025 (5 years from now), this amount will double.

Only 9% of the plastics produced to date have been recycled, another 12% have been incinerated and the remaining 79% have been disposed of in landfills or remain in the environment.

More than 700 marine species are affected by the presence of plastics in the oceans (more than 12.7 million tons of plastic pollute our seas every year).

Take action

According to
Greenpeace
it is not enough just to clean up the pollution of the rest, but to denounce the facts to the large companies that generate millions of tons of plastic waste per year. And so began the fight against plastic in supermarkets. And so began the #desnudalafruta campaign in Spain. A group of Spanish citizens organized themselves to make a massive denunciation of food establishments by taking photographs of fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic bags (single-use) and posting them on their networks.

Giving visibility to this fact helps to raise awareness in the community to end the ‘throwaway’ culture. In this way, large companies will not only make a “mea culpa”, but will take corrective measures and generate changes little by little with the aim of eliminating single-use plastics that do so much damage to our planet.

Companies that joined the campaign in Spain

It is good to see when people and companies start to become aware of the damage we can generate in the long term. This is a

ranking

of the first 4 supermarket chains that have joined the fight, according to Greenpeace Spain:

Eroski: They are committed to reducing 20% of their plastics by 2025 and allow their customers to bring their own packaging for shopping.

Lidl: With a clear strategy since 2018, they have been meeting their commitments to reduce plastic use to 20%. And they have eliminated all disposable plastic cutlery, plates, straws and cups..

Alcampo: With the most ambitious goal of all supermarkets, they want to reduce the use of plastics by 50% by 2030.

Aldi: Like others, they propose to reduce plastics by 20% by 2025. However, the elimination of packaging has only occurred in some fruit and vegetable products. Its strategy focuses on creating measures for recyclability, packaging reduction or substitution with other materials.

However, other supermarkets such as Carrefour, which is not among the top companies in making changes to its policies, offers 100% cotton netting as an alternative to plastic bags in the fruit and vegetable section. Also, they have changed the plastic containers for glass ones to carry olives and pickles.

Let’s stop the throwaway culture

We even think that every time we do the shopping, both fruits and vegetables need plastic wrapping for hygienic reasons, but nature has already taken care of that. All you need to do is wash them properly. Here are some tips

tips

you can use for washing.

It is important to keep in mind that Mother Nature offers all the protection measures for the consumption of its fruits, she gives us organic materials to manufacture products that end up being biodegradable.

products that end up being biodegradable

among other benefits. Humans often adapt our habits due to the overwhelming routine we live in, but that does not mean that we also have to burden our environment.

You too can join the campaign
Nude the fruit
! Every time you go to a supermarket and see this abuse of plastic use, take a picture and upload it to your networks with the hashtag #desnudalafruta and tag or mention the company responsible. Together we can change this!

Small steps make big changes