I made these images to visualise the lack of choice people have to shop plastic-free in my local Tesco Express (as of December 2019).
I took photos of all the shelves in the store then coloured-coded the products they held. Red = contains single-use plastic, green = SUP-free, blue = empty space.
The data visualisations are striking. Could we put some numbers on them? I worked with a developer friend to build a tool to measure what percentage of the shelf-space is free from single-use plastic.
Kids can't buy chocolate without packaging that's complicating their future (except Smarties, Fruit Pastilles & Munchies — well done, Smarties, Fruit Pastilles & Munchies! We can't buy their fruit and veg without packaging that tells us it's “Not yet recycled ☹”.
This project began as an exploration into one of The UN's Sustainable Development Goals — SDG 12, “Responsible Consumption and Production". Producers and stockists say plastic packaging is about providing consumers with plenty of choice. But these images leave us asking, what choice? We shop at the local supermarket — the one with the 43% market share — and we can only choose the options on the shelves. Sustainable packaging needs to be offered as a mainstream choice.
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© Pete Ashworth 2024
