UK Consumers want environmentally sound solutions

UK Consumers want environmentally sound solutions to disposable takeaway items

• A recent survey highlights consumers willing to pay more for environmentally responsible products.
• More than 40% of respondents feel retailers, including coffee shops, takeaways, and supermarkets, are doing enough to protect the environment.
• 29% of respondents stated they receive wooden cutlery versus 13% recycled

Manchester, 26 January 2023, Following the UK Government’s announcement that single-use plastics will be banned from October 2023, Vypr, the leading product intelligence platform, asked a nationally representative sample of its 65,000 community for its views on the ban.

According to the press release from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the ban will include single-use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers. The DEFRA release states ‘that England uses 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery — most of which are plastic — and 721 million single-use plates per year, but only 10% are recycled. If 2.7 billion pieces of cutlery were lined up, they would go round the world over eight and a half times (based on a 15cm piece of cutlery).’

Vypr discovered that 43.1% of consumers feel that food retailers such as coffee shops, takeaways and supermarkets with ‘food to go’ are not doing enough to protect the environment. Less than 20% felt that the sector was doing enough, with 37% not decided. Only 13% stated that they received recycled cutlery when ordering food to go, 29% stated they received wooden cutlery, and 17% received plastic options. A large proportion, 41%, stated they used their own.

With 83% of Vypr’s respondents stating they buy takeaways such as sandwiches and salads, there is a clear need for retailers to tackle this issue and communicate it to their customers. 40% of consumers would be happy to pay more for cutlery if it was sustainably sourced or reusable, with 59% stating that single-use items such as containers and cutlery should be charged for now.

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