Packaging for fresh produce in supermarkets was held up as the exemplar for both the best and the worst of packaging practices by New Zealand environmental group Wanaka Wasterbusters in its annual Unpackit Awards.
The Unpackit Awards are designed to highlight the best and the worst packs of the past year as voted by the public in an online poll.
This year's awards attracted 15,632 votes, and produced what organisers described as a symmetrical result, with supermarket packaging for produce heading both categories.
“It's like the Jekyll and Hyde of fruit and vegetables,” awards organiser Sophie Ward, said.
Topping the best packaging category was NZ company Rethink's 100 per cent biodegradable and organic reusable fresh produce bags.
Made from cotton, the bags are sold in some supermarkets in the country's north island.
Ward said the bags were popular with shoppers, and were worthy of more widespread availability.
“If all our supermarkets sold them in every fresh produce section, that would be a real breakthrough. It could significantly reduce the amount of packaging used to sell fruit and vegetables,” she said.
On the other side of the coin, the worst packaging of the year title was awarded to NZ's Countdown supermarkets, owned by Progressive Enterprises, for its practice of putting produce on meat trays then wrapping them in plastic.
It's the second year in a row this type of packaging has won Unpackit's “worst award”, with the 2012 award going to retail chain Foodstuffs for the same type of packaging.
“Putting fruit and vegetables on meat-trays and wrapping them in plastic is thoughtless and ridiculous,” Unpackit spokesperson Gina Dempster said.
“If supermarkets want credibility as responsible corporate citizens, they need to stop using this wasteful packaging that ends up in the rubbish.
“Selling fruit and vegetables on meat-trays is definitely not minimal or recyclable, so Countdown scores a D – needs to try harder – with their fresh produce packaging.”
The second prize in the best packaging category went to a simple 1.5kg paper bag used by NZ's Chelsea Sugar for its wares, with a range of recyclable packaging and refill systems from Ecostore taking out third prize.
In the hall of infamy, technology company Dell took out the second most unpopular packaging title for its over-packaging of computer monitors using non-recyclable material.
Nescafé's Nespresso single serve coffee capsules made from aluminium took out the third place for worst packaging. While recyclable in theory, the capsules cannot be collected in kerbside recycling and have to be sent for disposal to Auckland, at the consumer's cost.
Rethink's cotton shopping bags were voted by NZ consumers as best packaging of the year, while NZ supermarket Countdown's practice of putting produce on meat rays and wrapping them in plastic (shown inset), was voted worst.
