Retailer Iceland has joined forces with Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, A Plastic Planet and Surfers Against Sewage to call for businesses to commit to enhanced transparency in reporting on plastic consumption and tighter enforcement of mandatory reporting on plastic packaging and plastic pollution reduction targets.

Richard Walker, MD of Iceland, said: “Our message is clear. Without transparency, and government enforced reduction targets, we will not be able to judge whether business actions are delivering real progress. For several years now, businesses have been using incomplete information to represent the scale of their plastic packaging, their commitments to change, and the progress being made. We will all be better served by a more accurate and transparent picture on this issue.”

Walker notes that all major retailers and businesses are already subject to PRN reporting and will reporting under the proposed EPR scheme, so it should require no extra burden. As the company released its own report on its plastic footprint, Walker pointed to the fact that although the company made a 29 per cent reduction in plastic use over two years, two thirds of the plastic packaging Iceland retails are related to third-party brands rather than own label items. Iceland has made a pledge to eliminate plastic from own label products by the end of 2023.

Greenpeace UK plastic campaigner Nina Schrank commented: “There’s nothing like transparency about a problem to force companies to tackle it, and that’s true of throwaway plastic too. Iceland has made a bold and brave move by publishing their plastic data, and we urge other retailers to follow suit.”

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