SUPERMARKETS in West Somerset have been slammed by a green-minded group for its use of plastics.

West Somerset Together, an initiative of environmental group Forum 21, carried out a survey of 14 shops in Minehead, Dulverton and Exmoor as part of the plastic waste campaign.

The shops were marked from ‘very poor’ to ‘very good’ during the scoring that took place in April and May.

Minehead’s Morrisons, Tesco, Iceland, Lidl and Coop, as well as the Dulverton store, were all rated either ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

The aim was to see how retailers in the area were fighting against single-use plastics.

Bill Butcher,West Somerset Together, said “It is particularly disappointing that, at a time when the public is very concerned about the damage that plastic waste is doing to marine wildlife, the big supermarkets appear to be offering little choice to shoppers.

“The survey found lots of examples of over-packaged food, and no sign at all of “plastic-free aisles”, the government’s idea to help shoppers make good choices.

“Some of the smaller shops and stalls at the Farmers’ Market are making good efforts to minimise the use of single-use plastics; now we need the supermarkets to change their approach too”.

But some small local food shops, including outlets in Dulverton and Brompton Regis, were rated “Good”, especially for selling loose fruit and vegetables and giving shoppers the choice of paper bags. Toucan Health Foods was commended for its use of paper and making cloth carrier bags available. Stuart Lowen Farm Shop, Dulverton Delicatessen, Brompton Regis Village Shop and Dulverton Fruit and Vegetable Shop were all rated as ‘good’.

Stefanos’s Food stall at the Minehead Farmers’ Market was singled out for selling food in compostable containers.

Jules Salvati, Stefano’s Food, said “We’ve been using compostable plant-based food containers for more than a year now and our customers really like them.

“They can be re-used for a few weeks and then home composted, where they will break down in around 3 months. If small businesses like ours can do this, when are the supermarkets going to change?”

Jason Tarry, chief product officer for Tesco, said: “We are committed to reducing the total amount of packaging used across our business. Ideally we would like to move to a closed loop system. 

“We will work with our suppliers to redesign and reduce all packaging materials and after consultation with our leading suppliers earlier this year we will remove all packaging that is hard to recycle from our business by 2019.

“To complete the journey to a closed loop approach, we stand ready to work with government to reform the current approach to recycling in the UK.”