There’s plastic everywhere. Or at least, that’s often what it feels like. You go to make breakfast in the morning, and your bread slices are stacked in plastic. You open a new box of tea bags and, not only is the cardboard sealed, but the whole box is also wrapped in plastic. You head out for work, take out your mid-morning snack and, yes, there it is again. Despite the best efforts of individuals striving to reduce their plastic footprint, it feels as if businesses and suppliers haven’t yet caught up. 

And now, supermarkets seem to be buckling under the weight of all that stretch. Last year, environmental consultants Eunomia estimated that the UK’s biggest supermarkets were creating a plastic waste problem of an incredible 800,000 tonnes each year, so, we asked: what are Malta’s supermarkets doing to fight the battle? And is it enough? We reached out to several of the largest ones. Here are what some of them said. 

1. Park Towers Supermarkets

It seems that there have been some changes at Park Towers. “A few things we have done is introduce sugar bags for fruit and veg, we also sell Veco bags for reusable fruit and veg; we encourage the use of large shopping bags and not single use plastic bags; and we also encourage 'bring your own container' for butcher, fish and delicatessen. All our boxes are recycled daily or we keep some for customers to use for deliveries.”

2. Valyou Supermarkets

Valyou have been at the forefront in the media, saying that they are stepping up their game in the fight to eradicate plastic. They have recently launched an initiative where customers can bring their own reusable containers to buy items from the deli counter. And they've also decided to no longer sell single-use plastic disposables, with the current stock being the last available. We reached out to Valyou to see what else is in the pipeline, but received no response as yet. 

3. Greens Supermarket

Greens have come under fire for all the plastic being used. When we approached them, they told us: “Greens supermarket promotes the #BYOC campaign in all our counters in Gozo and Malta. We would also like to confirm that our management is constantly working to reduce the plastic usage in a near future.” We look forward to seeing what initiatives they implement! 

4. Lidl Malta

Lidl Malta has set up an endeavour to reduce their use of plastic by at least 20 per cent by the end of 2025 by revising the packaging and repackaging of its private label products. The brand is also committing to use 100 per cent recyclable plastic for the packaging of its own products. When asked, they told us that “Lidl is particularly committed to the issue of environmental sustainability. Regarding this initiative we think it will bring important sustainability benefits, as well it will improve the economic benefit of recycling.” Way to go!

Do you think this is enough? How can we make sure supermarkets bring their plastic use drastically down? We'd love to hear your suggestions!