SHOPPERS in Kidderminster are being encouraged to hand back plastic packaging at the supermarket tills to highlight how much of what we buy is unnecessarily wrapped.

Plastic Free Kidderminster and Bewdley are joining communities across the UK in holding a Mass Unwrap, which will take place at the Tesco superstore on Castle Road on Sunday, February 23.

The event is held over a two-hour period and in that time shoppers shop and pay as normal. When they move away from the till they can then visit a Mass Unwrap volunteer, who will help them take any unnecessary plastic packaging from their purchases and put it in a trolley for recycling or disposal. Counting up the items as they go, volunteers will be gathering evidence to show the scale of wrapping used.

Cllr Vicky Caulfield, lead volunteer for the event, said: “We are excited to work with Tesco for this event. I would encourage shoppers to being their own bags and boxes so that they can return their unwanted plastic to us on the day. We will also be joined by volunteers from Plastic Free Bewdley”.

Organised as part of the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities campaign, the purpose of a Mass Unwrap is to show the high levels of plastic packaging being used and put pressure on supermarkets to help make changes.

Steve Neeson, manager of Tesco Kidderminster store said “Tesco are committed to removing all hard to recycle materials from our packaging, e.g. replacing polystyrene pizza bases with cardboard, as a result over 300 tons of expanded polystyrene will be removed.

At over 850 stores including Kidderminster Super Store we offer a recycling point for plastic film and carrier bags.

We are introducing new logos on our products so our customers know what can be recycled in store.

Tesco wants to make recycling easier with simple and clear information on packaging, we have already made it possible for our customers to bring their own containers to use on our fresh counters”

The Mass Unwrap will take place from 10.30am to 12.30pm.