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

Latest Articles
UK launches world’s largest ocean monitoring system
The U.K. government, under the Blue Belt program , has announced its plan to install underwater camera rigs for monitoring ocean wildlife in...
These endangered monkeys kept getting hit by cars. Scientists had a clever solution.
Zanzibar red colobuses (Piliocolobus kirkii) are one of the most endagered species of African primates. (Image credit: Tim R. B. Davenport) Endangered primates that...
United Airlines: ‘No choice’ but to go carbon neutral
In 2019 there were 4.5 billion airline passengers worldwide, up from 2.1 billion in 2005 Flying is one of the most carbon-intensive ways...
Old Samsung Galaxy phones are recycled into medical devices
The smartphone captured images, and the Galaxy device used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse images for ophthalmic diseases. | Photo Credit: Samsung says the...
Turtles complete seemingly impossible journey thanks to a hidden ‘corridor’ through the Pacific
(Image credit: Shutterstock) North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta ) hatch on the shores of Japan and spend much of their...
Surfers Against Sewage launches long-term plastic waste clean-up
The public is being urged to clear plastic and litter from their local beaches, rivers and parks as part of a million-mile clean-up...