Plastic Free Communities: Freeing our shopping from plastic packaging

Mass Unwraps are an awesome, fun, high impact action that shows how much plastic is produced, and puts pressure on supermarkets and brands from community level, to change. Our Plastic Free Communities run Mass Unwraps as part of their local actions on plastic. To get involved it’s easy, simply find an event near you, turn up, and unwrap your plastic with our volunteers.

We know that many supermarkets have signed up the UK Plastic Pact and are working to reduce levels of plastic packaging, but progress is slow, and the UK still produces 2.5 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste annually.

The burden of plastic waste is put onto consumers, tax payers, and ultimately the environment. Bigger businesses contribute just 10% of the end-of-life disposal costs of their product and packaging. The government has announced the extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, a policy that would make producers pay for the disposal of their products, has been delayed until 2025.

Mass Unwraps leave the plastic with the supermarkets, and lets them deal with it.

They are also great, family friendly community events. Plastic Free Lady Bay held their first Mass Unwrap at their local Co-op, and not only got their local councillor involved with the event, but also linked the event with other community groups, and provided plastic for a local art project and art trail.

Want to get involved?

Contact your local Plastic Free Community, and find out if there is a Mass Unwrap happening near you >> Find your community – Plastic Free Communities

Find out how our SAS campaigns push for policy change, and an end to plastic pollution >> Our plastic pollution campaigns – Surfers Against Sewage (sas.org.uk)

If you’re a Plastic Free Community, it’s never been easier to organise and register a Mass Unwrap, head to your dashboard and click ‘Register a Mass Unwrap’. You’ll get a handy how to guide, a link to a webinar, and everything you need to get unwrapping.