'Shop and drop' campaign to reduce plastic consumption coming to Mullingar

Supermarket shoppers across the country have been asked to ‘Shop and Drop’ on Saturday April 21 in a day of action facilitated by Voice Ireland and Friends of the Earth. 

Customers are being encouraged leave the unwanted plastic packaging on their groceries behind at the checkout after doing their Saturday shop. 

The campaign is aimed at raising awareness of the amount of plastic waste being unnecessarily foisted on the consumer and to put the onus of dealing with the problem back on the producer.

Louise Heavin, a Westmeath Green Party representative, will be taking part in the campaign and welcomes it as a positive move. 

“As a consumer, it can be hard to get away from plastic packaging, much of which is no longer being accepted in people’s recycling bins. 

“This puts the responsibility and the cost of dealing with this sea of waste on the customer. The ‘Shop and Drop’ campaign will throw the focus back to the producers to put pressure on them to cut the waste at source.”

Ms Heavin says the campaign is timely. “I think the Blue Planet series brought home to people the scale of the plastics problem we face. 

“We’ll be approaching a number of supermarkets around the county ahead of this day of action, and hoping for a positive response.”

Full details on the campaign and how to get involved can be found on www.foe.ie/sickofplastic/

Contact Ms Heavin on Louise.heavin@greenparty.ie.