The Worst U.S. Supermarkets For Plastic Usage

In most supermarkets, it's hard to avoid single-use plastic. Whether it's plastic cutlery and plates, straws, meat wrapped in plastic, shrink-wrapped fruit, water bottles or the rings holding a six pack of beer, the stuff is literally everywhere. Some supermarket chains are moving to limit the amount of plastic on their shelves, however. A Thai supermarket recently set an interesting example by wrapping vegetables and other produce in banana leaves. In other countries, reuse and refill schemes are gaining traction and proving successful in reducing plastic waste.

In the United States, things still have a long way to go and Greenpeace looked into the supermarket chains with the most and least plastic packaging on their shelves. The index was determined across four factors - plastic policy, reduction, initiatives and transparency with a score closer to zero worst for plastic usage. H-E-B was the worst-ranked retailer for single use plastics and Greenpeace has claimed that the company is doing nothing to reduce its massive plastic footprint. Even though German discounter Aldi had the highest score in the index, it still failed in eliminating plastic from its shelves.