Greenpeace stage plastic push on a supermarket

Greenpeace volunteers and shoppers at the Waitrose in Marmion Road have been handing items of single-use plastic packaging back at tills, with notes to store managers calling for action to reduce excessive throwaway packaging.

James Sebley from Portsmouth Greenpeace said: '˜Waitrose saw our poster for our day of action a few weeks prior and decided to support our efforts by putting up a notice board, having a bin available for customers and providing us free coffee.

'˜The manager had a long chat with us and this all signalled Waitrose's ambition to change for the better.

'˜Packaging is a huge part of the plastic problem, and supermarkets are responsible for a lot of that packaging.

'˜The public have made it very clear that we are not happy seeing our oceans polluted with this pointless plastic, and we need to see supermarkets taking concrete steps to reduce their contribution. Like plastic pollution, this issue isn't going to go away until they take action.'