Under wraps? What Europe’s supermarkets aren’t telling us about plastic

The report finds that European supermarkets generally perform poorly in addressing the plastic crisis, with an average score of 13.1% across transparency, commitments, and policy support. While some UK and Irish chains score higher, most companies lack basic data on their plastic footprints and fail to implement systemic changes like reusable packaging. The analysis highlights a preference for voluntary commitments over binding regulations and warns against greenwashing practices, such as exporting flexible plastics to third countries like Turkey.

• European supermarket chains achieved a very low average score of 13.1% (out of 100) across the three evaluated categories: transparency and performance, commitments, and support for sustainable government policy.
• Transparency regarding plastic footprints is critically low, with 82% of the investigated companies failing to provide basic information on their plastic footprint.
• The adoption of reusable packaging is minimal; the EU average for the 'reusability of packaging' subcategory was only 5.1%, and no company scored above 40% in this area.
• Supermarkets show a strong preference for voluntary commitments over systemic changes or binding legislation, often focusing on recyclability rather than waste avoidance or reuse systems.
• There is significant inconsistency in corporate plastic policies across different countries; for example, the Schwarz Group (Lidl and Kaufland) scored 44.7% in the UK but between 13% and 23.7% in Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
• The report identifies greenwashing practices where supermarkets collect flexible plastics in-store but export the waste to third countries like Turkey, where it may be illegally disposed of or burned.

APA

Changing Markets Foundation (2022). Under wraps? What Europe’s supermarkets aren’t telling us about plastic. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Underwraps-German-ExecSum-4.pdf

Chicago

Changing Markets Foundation. Under wraps? What Europe’s supermarkets aren’t telling us about plastic. 2022. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Underwraps-German-ExecSum-4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Changing Markets Foundation |title=Under wraps? What Europe’s supermarkets aren’t telling us about plastic |date=May 2022 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Underwraps-German-ExecSum-4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{changingmarketsfoundation2022under, author = {{Changing Markets Foundation}}, title = {{Under wraps? What Europe’s supermarkets aren’t telling us about plastic}}, institution = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Underwraps-German-ExecSum-4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }