London Environment Strategy consultation

Environment is very important to me when making food choices. The less packaging, the better, though very difficult to avoid it all together with current supermarket practices.

Also, sadly Tower Hamlets (my local council) does not accept many types of plastic packaging for recycling, neither does it collect food waste / compost from the block of flats where I live. I have tried asking local farm whether they'd be able to take compost as i am happy to bring it to them myself, but apparently they are really inudated with such requests from other locals (since there is no colleciton by the council) and they have far too much for their needs from their own cafe / farm.  

Very happy to do more, but need support from the local council / Mayor of London in the form of collection schemes. 

If people were paid to recycle - even minimal amounts (say 1p for a plastic bottle or coke can,or by weight of cardboard etc) then far more would be recycled and there might be less litter

Citywide biogas plant, providing power and heat is the realitic solution. Composting is a waste of resources.

I live in Newham where the recycling is pretty woeful. For plastic, they only recycle plastic bottles. We try to buy products without plastic packaging but it’s hard if you shop in a supermarket. We buy a lot of products in bulk online, that have less packaging but we’d rather buy locally. We have a compost bin in our garden for food waste, as Newham don’t have a composting collection scheme. 

I buy fresh, seasonal & British grown/produced food. I don't want packaged food & I don't want to buy food that has been transported thousands of miles. Yes, I recycle packaging and I am fortunate enough to live in a borough (Lambeth) which offers recycling of food waste.

Most people nowadays want a wide range of food products, many of which come pre-packaged. One solution, once you've bought the food, is to take it OUT of the packaging & leave it in the supermarket. This approach was adopted by consumers in Germany in the 1970s & was so successful that supermarkets very quickly reduced food packaging: it can be done. Look at what's been achieved on single-use plastic straws....

A London-wide composting scheme would be fantastic. We have green recycling in Lambeth, but it is the contractor Veolia who benefits: they sell the composted green waste. There is not even a scheme to offer at least some of the compost to community gardening groups, either free or at base cost.

I live on South Lambeth Road: we are awash with fast food establishments & takeways: the litter and rubbish from these premises is strewn all over our streets. Besides talking to the shop owners, we have now also called in the Council Enforcement Officer to levy fines against these premises for not keeping their environment clean. And we attend licensing hearings in an attempt to reduce the number of such outlets in Lambeth. With a 40% obesity rate amongst primary school children soon the only thing our taxes will be spent on is the NHS.

I am very concerned about the impact of my food choices on the environment. I have recently started getting a veg box delivered. The primary reason was to avoid the unnecessary plastic on vegetables in supermarkets. Please do all you can to encourage shops to reduce plastic. 

I have also recently started compositing food waste at home however I would much prefer it if composting were provided by the council.

I live in a block of flats with a communal bin and recycling bin. I am often disappointed to see recyclable waste in the rubbish bin and vice versa. Please improve how you educate people about the need to recycle the correct items. 

There should be no packaging which is not recyclable.  Recycling should be the same across London. I live in Camden which has a very good recycling service.  I dont waste anything if I can help it.  I shop using a cloth bag and buy my fruit and veg from a stall wrapped in paper bags.  Governments should do much more to ban rubbish food and drink and non recyclable materials and should also do something drastic about air pollution.

I try hard to reduce plastic waste, but it is pretty much impossible. I recycle as much as I can and we are fortunate that the council provides subsidised composting bins- as we live in a flat, we are using a worm farm on our balcony for our veggie scraps. It would be great if the council could do food waste collection for other food waste.

I would like to buy less-packaged food. I would use a bulk buy wholefoods and bring my own containers if there was one in the local area. 

I do all I can to recycle everything. In France there are no plastic bags like the 5p ones. You buy a “bag for life” or bring baskets,string bags, anything. If you forget your bags, you have to buy another “bag for life”. Still far too much plastic packaging everywhere.

I do think about the environment when buying food. I particularly think that supermarket are using a lot of packaging which cannot be recycle. I think we must ask supermarket to push the packaging industry to use recyclable packaging and for supermarket to provide recycling bins at check outs to encourage people to recycle more, as not all borough are hot on receycling.

I also think that compositing should be part of recycling programs in bouroughs.

Alot. I refuse to buy things with excessive packaging. I detest Amazon for the ridiculous amount of packaging their parcels have. They as a company should be made to recollect their packaging for reuse because I presume much of it ends up in peoples bins after one use. I will not buy from major high street coffee chains due to their unreyclable cups. I never use cheap takeaways as I do not trust the provenance of their chicken! I would like to see it to be compulsory for residents and businesses to recycle and sort their rubbish responsibly. I live in an area of London where people refuse to recycle they just dump everything in bin bags. My borough does a green waste collection weekly to which you can add kitchen waste veg., but people still put greens like grass and garden waste in bin bags! Many shops have switched to paper bags now and I would like to see all plastic carrier bags gone as people are using more despite being charged for them.

Transparent plastic pachaging should be banned

Recycling practices need to be standardised and information needs to be clearer. Packaging often says 'check kerbside collection information' and this can be difficult to find and confusing, and differ between boroughs. I recycle and compost as much as possible, but am never totally sure if I have it right. I'm also not sure of where it goes and how it is collected. I do not necessarily have trust that authorities are dealing with it the right way.

I do not buy certain foods because of their packaging. For example, Aldi sell a single aubergine in non-recyclable film!

I think that manufacturers need to be held more to account.