Single use plastics

There is a lot of focus on these in the media at the moment, and rightfully so. Single use plastics are a blight upon our land and oceans. Landfill sites are full of them, and more and more is finding its way into our oceans, and damaging marine life. I for one really want to see this improved upon, and fast.

The focus is on bottled water, fizzy drinks, and the stuff you pick up out of convenience. However there is something big being overlooked. Now I am sure it is being looked at on some sort of scale, but very little information on it is ever reported on.

I am talking about the products we buy in supermarkets every week, things which are over diluted with water and other pointless thinning agents, to make it appear we are getting more for our money.

The example that really made an impact on me is fruit squash, or dilute drinks. For years we had supermarket shelves filled with all the favourites, including iconic products like Robinsons Barley. You can spot the bottle a mile off.

Having worked in retail for years, I totally understand brand imaging, and identity. For sure a key part of capturing a customer base. So any change to that could be damaging. However, so can filling the world up with millions of tons of plastics.

When you take the time to look at the different drinks available in shops, and read the labels, it starts to become more apparent that some of these products are 60% or more, just water... The same stuff you will be adding to the product when it comes to using it. Be it a drink, a washing product, or anything else out there which eventually ends up having water added, having excessive amounts of water in the product at point of sale is wasteful. And I am not just talking about the plastic here.
If Robinsons sell one million bottles of squash, with 60% extra water in there, that is 600,000kgs or 600 tons of unnecessary water being shipped around, from producer, to distributor to retailer. That's not only a lot of extra plastic needed to contain it, but also a huge amount of extra emissions for the transport.

This is not a dig at Robinsons, they are just a good example to use as they sell a variety of dilutable products from their Real Fruit range, which is diluted at a ratio of 1 part squash to 4 parts water 1:4 or 62mls of squash to make a 250ml drink, through to their Squash'd range which requires 1 part squash to 75 parts water, or 3.3mls of squash to make a 250ml drink. That is quite the difference.

Now the argument might be had that Squash'd is a different type of product and does not make the same kind of drink. Fine, let's use another example. Tesco concentrate. With a 1.5 litre bottle making a whopping 60 litres of drink (at recommended ratios), that is quite different still to the one litre bottle of Real Fruit which make a paltry four litres of drink. When you put these into a visual context, the difference is HUGE!
Forget cost, lets pretend there is no real financial difference to the products when it comes to getting the same results. Instead let's focus on the product needed to make 60 litres of squash. The same 60 litres which can be made from one Tesco concentrate, would require a huge FIFTEEN bottles of Real Fruit.
So putting that into context, that is 14 extra empty  plastic bottles being disposed of! That is shocking to say the least. When you then take into account that the Tesco concentrate is one past squash to nine parts water, that is 25ml of squash concentrate to make a 250ml.
*note, numbers are based on data on the products

So three products, all which make a 250ml fruity drink when diluted. At one end of the scale, 62mls being required, then in the middle, a slightly more reasonable 25ml, and at the insane end of the scale, 3.3mls to make 250ml. That is 20 times less than the most watered down product of the three.

When you get your head around those numbers, it is truly mindblowing that manufacturers keep churning out these products in their current form factors. Especially when one manufacturer makes the two products at either end of the scale.

The same issue is store wide like I say, with any product which also offers a concentrated version being the biggest offenders. However there are plenty more single option products which contain too much water, and could easily be reduced down further. The implications are wide spread, from the plastics used to contain, transport, and sell the product in, to the excesses of water used in them, taking water from the mains supply. A mains supply that we are currently seeing in the media that is under threat from not being able to keep up with demand. And of course, the transportation costs of all this excess. Both financially and environmentally.

In short, what I am saying here is manufacturers are knowingly being wasteful and excessive. Selling huge volumes of product, when it could be reduced down considerably. Obviously the cost would take some getting used to £ per litre looking excessive until it all makes sense. But I promise I will continue to buy fruit squash drinks, and will buy more from those who manufacture and package is more responsibly.
When the world wants to, it can act really fast on these matters, with products like Sugar Puffs immediately going out of production after people finally realised how much sugar was actually in them. So I would love to see the same.

It is time for manufacturers to stop producing watered down products for the sake of shifting larger volumes. Surely it would make financial sense too? 4x the product in the same size bottle, 4x times the price (fairs fair) 3 less bottles used.

I have no idea who I would approach with this matter, but really hope someone of influence is either reading this, or having the same thoughts themselves. Things do need to change, but the blame does not lay entirely with the consumer.