CAMPAIGNERS against plastic will hold a ‘mass unwrap’ at Booths Supermarket in Ilkley this weekend.

Wharfedale Tackles Plastic will stage the event from 10am to 12pm on Saturday, February 29. The venture is an initiative from Surfers Against Sewage, a national environmental charity, which calls on communities to make a stand against pointless plastic packaging. Volunteers across the district have been organising events to help shoppers return plastic straight back to the supermarkets.

The action encourages shoppers to bring along reusable bags and containers to decant their purchases, then hand unnecessary plastic to volunteers to be logged and recycled where possible.

Event organiser Louise Miller of WTP said: “We have been working with Booths Ilkley for the past year and are pleased that they are happy to help us draw attention to this issue.

“We need shoppers to use their buying power to indicate to the supermarkets that we don’t want or need all this plastic. We also need suppliers to provide affordable alternatives.”

Booths Specialist Manager, Paul Rogers-Wilson said: “We are happy to be involved in the initiative and will be taking the opportunity to highlight our range of eco-friendly products. We have already removed plastic straws, cutlery and sauce sachets at the request of Wharfedale Tackles Plastic, as we are aware that these are some of the top offenders in plastic pollution. We also encourage customers to bring their own takeaway coffee cups and are happy to use customer’s own containers on our meat and fish counters.”

This year’s action will also gather evidence of customers’ top plastic pet-hates, through Citizens Science, to feed back to government and industry and call for immediate action. WTP Secretary Anne Cuthbertson said:”We want shoppers to come and talk to us about their efforts to reduce plastic waste and any particular issues they are finding so we can feed this back to the project and the supermarket”.

Email Louise Miller at Wharfedaletp@gmail.com for further information or to help at the event.