From tomatoes to yoghurts, soap powder to beer, the packaging that infuriates you

The Independent

Fruit & vegetables
At Budgens, I wanted two oranges only and, not seeing any individual ones on display, reluctantly I picked up a bag of six. Some will rot before I get round to eating them all.
Chris Turnbull

It is no longer possible to buy ordinary tomatoes loose in our branch of Tesco. You have to buy six in a plastic container. Why has this changed? I don't want them packed in plastic.
Alison Sims

Even though cauliflowers are sold almost entirely protected by their green leaves, Tesco insists on putting each one into a plastic bag.
Berjis Daver

I shop at Waitrose and stand at the till each week removing plastic packaging from: swedes, parsnips, passion fruit, peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, lettuce, bananas, spring greens, cabbage - in fact, nearly all fruit and vegetables.
Christine Walters

I recently bought from Waitrose a small head of broccoli, sold loose, weighing just over 300g. Price 48p, weighed by myself. In the adjacent bin was apparently identical broccoli - not organic - shrink-wrapped and priced at £1.47 for 300g, i.e. an extra £1 for the wrapping.
Dr Ann Soutter

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a half cucumber from Sainsbury's that had originally been a whole shrink-wrapped cucumber cut in half, and then wrapped again in its own plastic wrapper, therefore wrapping it twice.
Marion Marsh

After living in France for four years, I was shocked when I returned to England and found that I couldn't even buy a lettuce in my local supermarket - only pre-packaged, ready washed salad mixes. In France, there is virtually no pre-packaging of fruit and veg.
Esther Race

The most recent annoying practice in Sainsbury's - a cauliflower, minus all its outside leaves, encased in a rigid "football" style, transparent, hinged container. It costs about 50p more than an unwrapped one.
Jan Huntingdon

Today, I almost walked out of Sainsbury's with a single apple in a large plastic Sainsbury's bag. I took my apple out of the bag and gave it back to the cashier.
Jade Beecroft

I've often wondered why Tesco packages sweet potatoes in little black plastic trays with cellophane wrapping. Of all the vegetables, the sweet potato is among those least vulnerable to damage or bruising.
Kevin Curtin

Tesco or Marks & Spencer's finest range of fruit and vegetables come on trays with a hard plastic top followed with a second plastic wrapping to encase the tray. It is ridiculous.
Allison Burns

Morrisons also sell individual bananas in a plastic tray wrapped in clingfilm. Great campaign!
Julie Williams

Ready meals
Products like hummous, paté, dips and olives have an unnecessary double layer - they often have a cardboard outer sleeve in addition to the plastic container, when this could suffice if it was sealed and had the information printed on the outside.
Paula Mills

Shopping in Asda just today, I found a beaut - surplus packaging a-go go. Müller are the culprits and it's their "Müllerice" range. I thought, "blimey, that's a lot of card for six packaged yoghurts" - it's the sheer size of the packaging compared to the size of the yoghurts that struck me.
Richard Smith

A low from M&S that I spotted several weeks ago: microwave porridge for one. How sad is that? Homemade porridge takes five minutes to make, is cheap, nourishing, untainted, with estrogen-mimicking chemicals, and creates no waste.
Emily van Evera

Tesco wrapping groups of tins in plastic film - if I want four tins of beans I don't need the shop to wrap them for me.
Ian Cessford

Occasionally, I buy a takeaway cheeseburger from McDonald's with the intention of eating it immediately. They always put the wrapped burger in a paper bag without asking. The McDonald's is next to a playing field which regularly fills with rubbish from their customers.
James Green

Yeo Valley organic yoghurt tubes are in a plastic tray and a cardboard box - just the box would be sufficient. This is quite surprising as normally "organic" companies are more environmentally friendly.
Lorraine Harvey

Waitrose frozen fish comes wrapped in sealed clear plastic bags with a re-sealable zip. This is then packed in a box. I often leave the box at the checkout.
Philippa Towler

Drinks
Carling, Carlsberg and Stella all protect their lager in a tin can. However, if you buy their multi-packs those same cans are further protected in a cardboard box and to protect the box is a covering of plastic.
Richard Quinlan

When I go to the Continent, my beers come in bottles that have all been reused. Here, every time I have a beer, the bottle gets smashed, driven around, melted, put back together again and driven to the brewery for refilling. Why can't we just keep re-using the bottles like our friends across the Channel?
Jim Bell

Confectionery and bread
The chocolate bars in a Cadbury's Selection Box are wrapped in a protective foil, then a glossy paper wrapper, sat in a moulded plastic tray, before being put in a cardboard box.
Jack Downey

A couple of years ago, Mr Kipling started wrapping his cake slices in packs of two, within a pack of six. Exceedingly wasteful...
Dawn Preston

Easter eggs - often the box is twice as big as the egg itself, sometimes even bigger.
Douglas Chester

I recently went into a café where coffee and cakes were being bought for the office: eight coffees in paper cups put in cardboard containers... eight cakes put in individual paper bags, put in a paper carry bag. How many times in the day does that happen?
Rachael Foster

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