Reducing plastic over-packaging
The Plastico à mais campaign, organised by DECO, a consumer rights association in Portugal, called on packaging companies to eliminate or develop alternatives to plastic over-packaging in their products.
The association asked consumers to take photographs of over-packaged products in supermarkets and email them to DECO. DECO then contacted the companies to raise the over-packaging issue and inform them about various ways to develop alternatives or reduce plastic in their products.
The campaign ended in 2019 with great results: over 5,300 consumers took part, 960 cases of over-packaging were reported, and DECO collaborated with over 80 companies that showed willingness to reduce the plastic packaging used for their products. Some companies have already implemented changes.
The campaign also let DECO identify which kind of products had the most plastic packaging: 41.05% of the complaints were related to packaging of fresh products like fruit and vegetables, while 19.35% were about dry grocery products like grain and rice. Cleaning products resulted in the least reports, at 1.96%.
