Tony Lloyd MP is calling for mandatory annual reporting on plastic packaging use by UK supermarkets, alongside targets to reduce it.

Tony Lloyd said, ‘The seriousness of plastic pollution has never been more urgent. 114 billion pieces of throwaway plastic is used in supermarket packaging each year.

‘To put that into some perspective, that’s the equivalent of almost 3,000 Boeing 747s.

‘The majority of this waste will end up polluting our natural environments. For example, the Centre for International Environmental Law predicts that by the year 2050, our oceans could contain more plastic than fish.

‘Many people in Rochdale will have watched the Blue Planet II series and seen the dramatic scale of plastic pollution in the oceans.

‘As supermarkets fail to provide detailed data on the amount of plastic they use, it will be increasingly difficult for them to to judge whether their business actions are delivering real progress.’

Tony Lloyd is one of 40 cross-party Members of Parliament to co-sign an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling for the mandatory reporting on plastic packaging.

The EDM states ‘that transparent reporting on plastic use is critical to reducing plastic waste’ and ‘backs calls for UK supermarkets to transparently report their plastic use,’ calling on the Government ‘to introduce mandatory annual reporting on plastic packaging use by UK supermarkets alongside targets to reduce it.’