Plastic bags not top of supermarket boss’s green plan

Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King has told the Observer newspaper that whilst plastic bags were ‘inconic’ in the fight against waste is the disposable society, they were not top of his green agenda. Justin King told the newspaper  that” plastic bags are inconic, I accept that” but added “but they are iconic, not material. In overall environmmental terms, food waste is a much bigger issue”. Mr King said that his ‘top three’ issues were food waste followed by packaging and then third, plastic bags. Mr King also said that at the moment shifting to recyclable packaging was not a priority as 90% of local authorities couldn’t process the waste. Mr King felt that the UK government should incentivise council’s so they could invest in recycling. The major supermarkets and retailers do have a plan to reduce the use of virgin plastic in bags by 25% in two years. In year 1 (to February 2008) a 14% reduction had been achieved with 1 billion bags less used.