Mass amounts of consumables are packaged by plastic, all of which may hopefully become packaged by recyclable and biodegradable materials. For now, we can focus on the unnecessary plastic packaging of our fresh food produce. Whether this plastic contributes to piles of landfill, or polluting the natural environment, it is negatively impacting the world and it is important to minimise waste as much as possible. The wide spread community effort to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags, has set us on the right path, however it is now time to take the next step and turn our attention to consumables.

Loose fruit and vegetables are readily available, so there is no need for the option of their packaged counterparts. Instead, providing reusable produce bags will not only eradicate the plastic produce bags but will eradicate the need for packaged fresh produce.

I am university student and up until the beginning of 2019, I have been quite blinded by the diverse issues that are within both national and international environments, as well as how delicate the tipping scale evidently is. I have always been an advocate of preventing littering, and ensuring that it be a community effort by making my mark where possible, in order to prevent waste from entering the environment. After partaking in an university level course, that is predominantly environmental based, I have for the first time understood that small things can have huge impacts. Although individual plastic packaging has its positive points, such as convenience, its benefits cannot be justified to outweigh the impacts.