It's time food manufacturers took responsibility for their own poor designs.
British chip maker Walkers is being inundated with mail deliveries of its own packaging. An online petition with more than 312,000 signatures so far urges signers to mail their empty chip bags to Walkers as an act of protest against the bags' non-recyclable design.
As petition organizer Geraint Ashcroft explained, the majority of chip packets, made from metallized plastic, are not recyclable or compostable and have been found fully intact up to 33 years after consumption. The UK alone consumes 6 billion bags of chips a year, and Walkers churns out a whopping 11 million bags daily. Ashcroft wrote,
"At today's consumption rate in 33 years' time there will be 200 billion crisp packets either sent to landfill or polluting our oceans. Many will be ingested by animals, fish or birds leading to a slow lingering death."
Mailing the bags to Walkers is a way to hold the company accountable for its packaging and to pressure it to come up with a better design. Because Walkers has what's known as a 'Freepost' address, the Royal Mail postal service is obligated to deliver anything that is addressed correctly -- even if it's an empty chip bag.
#PacketinWalkers ♻️ Mum & I are returning our PLASTIC bags back to @walkers_crisps today using the FREEPOST address.. their refusal to ditch plastic until 2025 = 28 BILLION MORE ❌ plastic packets will end up in landfillbefore then.. thank u @38_degrees for this Campaign
