Leave your plastic at the till with the first nationwide Mass Unwrap

  • Supermarkets flood Britain with 59 billion pieces of plastic each year.
  • A Mass Unwrap is a great opportunity for everyone of all ages to join forces and send a clear and strong message that the way we use packaging urgently needs to change.
  • In the UK the burden of plastic waste is put onto consumers, tax payers, and ultimately the environment as businesses contribute just 10% of the end-of-life disposal costs of their product and packaging.
  • Surfers Against Sewage is calling on supermarkets to urgently and radically reduce and redesign packaging and take full responsibility for its business practices.

Between the 3rd and 10th of March, Marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage has organised a series of Mass Unwrap events in supermarkets across the UK to call for action to tackle wasteful and avoidable single-use plastic.

Mass Unwrap is a fun, high-impact action that highlights exactly how much plastic waste is produced in UK supermarkets after every shop. The event involves people across the country leaving their excess plastic waste at the till, instead of taking it home.
The events are being coordinated by Surfers Against Sewage volunteer community leaders and will be launched in West Hampstead, Anglesey, Carbis Bay and Totnes on Sunday 3rd March before then moving to Bingley, Crouch End, Crowthorne, Abergavenny, Ferndown, Formby, Mortimer, Ilkley, Ladbroke Grove, Penzance, and more. Please check the Mass Unwrap events map for new events which will be registered during the week here.

“Supermarkets are putting 112 thousand pieces of plastic in to our environment every minute and much of this is avoidable single-use plastic. Wherever you live, whether you’re on shore or inland, urban or rural, high-tide or high-rise, you can join the fight against single-use plastics. It’s not about removing all plastic from our lives. It’s about kicking our addiction to avoidable single-use plastic, and changing the system that produces it.”

Rachel Yates
Plastic Free Communities Project Officer at SAS

Big brands are accountable for a disproportionately large amount of plastic pollution, placing vast quantities of avoidable and pointless single-use plastic on the market without a system in place to capture and reuse material.
Under current systems, the vast burden of all this plastic is put onto consumers, tax payers, and ultimately the environment, while businesses contribute just 10% of the end-of-life disposal costs of their product and packaging.

Surfers Against Sewage is calling for supermarkets to be part of the solution and calls for them to:

  1. Cut out avoidable single-use plastic and redesign packaging
  2. Use recycled content & stop using virgin plastic
  3. Take responsibility and invest in proven systems technology such as an ‘all in’ deposit return schemes for drinks containers.
The Mass Unwrap is part of Surfers Against Sewage’s award winning Plastic Free Communities campaign to free where we live from avoidable single-use plastic, which is now active in more than 400 communities across the UK.

Surfers Against Sewage is calling on shoppers to join an organised Mass Unwrap, do their weekly food shop, remove any plastic from produce and hand it back to the supermarket, sending a message that they must stop creating a mountain of plastic waste. During the event all pieces of wasteful plastic will be counted and the evidence shared back with businesses and government.

“This is a great opportunity for everyone of all ages to join forces and send a clear and strong message that the way we use packaging needs to change, and faster. Supermarkets form a big part of our communities and the way that we buy food. This non-confrontational and family friendly event offers a unique opportunity for consumers to be able to raise awareness of excess packaging and the need for change.”

Rachel Yates
Plastic Free Communities Project Officer at SAS

Locations

  • Co-Op, Bingley 1.30 – 3.30pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Waitrose, Crouch End, London 9.30am – 11.30am, Saturday 9th March
  • Lidl, Crowthorne 10am – 12pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Co-Op Crowthorne 10am – 12pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Tesco, Formby 1pm – 3pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Tesco Express Mortimer 10am – 12pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Sainsbury’s, Ladbroke Grove, 11am – 2pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Morrisons, Long Rock, Penzance 11am – 1pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Tesco, Branwell Lane, Penzance 11am – 1pm, Saturday 9th March
  • Morrisons, Abergvenny 12 – 2pm, Sunday 10th March
  • Budgens, Mortimer 11am – 1pm, Sunday 10th March
  • Sainsbury’s, Ferndown 10am – 12pm, Sunday 10th March