Gallagher joins calls for ban on plastic wrap

Senator Robbie Gallagher has joined his colleagues in calling for a ban on plastic wrap on groceries in supermarkets.

The Fianna Fáil man says that Ireland should follow France's a lead in banning plastic wrapping.

"We have been warned repeatedly that our seas will have more plastic than fish by 2050 if we do not change our ways. Only 14% of plastic waste can be recycled, so we need to look at what we can do to change our consumption of plastic and decrease food waste.

"We have often seen products wrapped in plastic which actually do not need packaging at all. We have to start questioning why this is happening and we need to select, where possible products that do not have unnecessary wrapping,” said Senator Gallagher.

Senator Gallagher also claimed that such a ban would likely reduce food waste. He noted that the UK charity, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), spent 18 months researching the difference between people buying loose products and people buying wrapped products.

"It concluded that selling produce loose, without wrapping, led to 14 million baskets of food not being wasted. So actually, by selecting loose produce, we are also reducing food waste substantially, a double win. We need to go that way and get rid of the unnecessary plastic wrapping on our produce," he said.