As part of Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Packaging Awareness Day, Katy joined Glasgow Councillors and members of the public outside the Sainsburys supermarket in Crow Road last weekend, Partick to demonstrate against excessive packaging.

Shoppers were encouraged to sign a petition calling for an end to excessive product packaging and the use of compostable and recyclable materials.

Jake Wilson, from Glasgow Friends of the Earth commented:

“Food packaging costs households £470 per year – that’s one sixth of the average food budget! In addition, over 40 percent of household rubbish that goes into landfill is supermarket packaging.”

“Most of it is unnecessary and is only adding to Scotland’s growing waste mountain.  Over-packaged goods waste a huge amount of valuable resources -  we hope that Sainsburys will listen and reduce the amount of packaging accordingly. The real challenge is to avoid waste in the first place – we want to see supermarkets composting their own food waste and providing biodegradable sources of packaging.”

Katy commented:

“I’m glad to be supporting local efforts at reducing excess packaging. The Liberal Democrats are leading the efforts in Parliament to tackle this problem. “

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said:

“We are completely committed to reducing the amount of packaging we use and making that packaging we do use recyclable.”