How a ‘Smart Supermarket’ could do away with plastic packaging

A hopeful report by Greenpeace envisions a future where supermarkets have gotten rid of superfluous waste. The supermarket of the future will use smart technology to eliminate plastic packaging, to incentivize the use of reusable containers, and to retain loyal customers. This is the message from Greenpeace in its latest report released on Tuesday, " The Smart Supermarket: How retailers can innovate beyond single-use plastics and packaging ." The report asks what many of us have before: What exactly do supermarkets have to do to get rid of all the plastic? It spells out step-by-step solutions, from the moment a customer enters a store to when they get home, rethinking how each step is handled. While some features of the smart supermarket remain the same as the supermarkets we know now, others are radically different, and will require significant behavioral shifts. For example, fresh food need not be wrapped in single-use plastic anymore. There are other ways to keep it fresh, such as misting, and to create barcodes, such as laser food labelling . Fresh foods in some parts of the world can be wrapped in natural plant materials. Not swathing fruits and vegetables in plastic has proven to […]

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