Hundreds of pieces of plastic reclaimed during inaugural unwrap

Plastic Free Exeter held their inaugural plastic unwrap on Saturday 2 June.

Part of the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities movement, the unwrap was the third event run by Exeter’s group since they launched in January 2018.

Watching hundreds of shoppers exit Sainsbury’s in Alphington with their weekly shops, founding member Rosalind Holsgrove-West, commented “It’s been interesting to observe just how much plastic is coming out of the supermarket. When we go shopping, we’re used to our one shop a week where we see what’s in our trolley. But to be stood here for two hours and seeing the sheer volume of plastic that comes out with every customer - it’s just everywhere.”

The campaign group used the unwrap as an opportunity to make both consumers and supermarkets consider the sheer volume of plastic they create every year (nearly 1 million tonnes) - most of it completely unnecessary. Rosalind observed “the worst offenders were avocados, peppers, bananas, flowers, and the wrapping that comes with multipacks of anything”.

Off the back of two highly successful events in April - a Quay clean and demonstration outside Exeter Guildhall that saw the city council vote to ban single use plastic pass - the unwrap proved a tougher sell. Only a handful of people came who had heard about the event beforehand, so it was up to the Plastic Free Exeter volunteers to ask shoppers on their way out of Sainsbury’s if they would be happy to have the unwanted plastic removed from items in their shop. The unwanted plastic was then left in containers provided by Sainsbury’s.

Though only around 30% of shoppers agreed to this, group member, Sara Palmer, still deems there are positives to take from the two hours spent outside the supermarket, “even if people didn’t stop to unwrap items from their shopping, everyone who exited saw or spoke to us and so it worked as an awareness raising campaign.”

Another volunteer present, Ashley Petrons, also noted “It’s frightening to contemplate that even though a much lower volume of shoppers than we saw come through the doors actually agreed to stop and unwrap, we still ended up with around 1000 pieces of plastic that are 100% single use and should really not exist”. Sainsbury’s themselves were highly supportive, with store manager, Hilary Standfield, saying she was “very happy to be part of this awareness raising campaign”.

Next up the group are trialing the Scandanavian craze of plogging on 1 July.

They invite people of all abilities to join them on a jog, starting from The Waterfront at 11am, during which any litter seen, will be collected.

If you would like to find out more information, or register your interest please do get in touch on: plasticfreeexeter@gmail.com or via the Facebook event page. Alternatively do just feel free to turn up on the morning.