#EndDoublePackaging: Your pictures can end double packaging

by Chloe Schwizgebel | 19 February 2024

Overpackaging has been a growing concern for our environment. The most frustrating is double packaging: when an extra unnecessary layer of paper or plastic is put around a packaged product to join them together and sell more. To stop this packaging madness for profit, Canal It Up, Proper Strandlopers, Gents Milieufront and Fair Resource Foundation teamed up to launch the End Double Packaging campaign. With this campaign we call upon consumers to send in cases of overpackaging and double packaging to Fost Plus, the organization that represents the packaging industry in Belgium. Besides that, we also call on consumers to refuse to buy cases of double packaging. 

With this campaign, we hope to reach the producers and supermarkets so that they can take responsibility towards a more sustainable way of packaging products. The message is simple: when consumers see a case of double packaging in supermarkets, they take a photo of it and send it to the form of Fost Plus. Besides that, consumers can also share the cases of double packaging they find online with the hashtag #EndDoublePackaging. 

The organization Canal It Up – which works towards cleaner waterways in Brussels – carried out an extensive research showing that Colruyt is the biggest polluter of the Brussels canals. Following this research, the Colruyt group claims to be working on innovative solutions to prevent plastic pollution. The team of Canal It Up decided to put the retailer to the test. They went shopping in the Colruyt of Jette and found 171 cases of double packaging. This extra plastic wrap has only 1 function: sell more products. These multipacks are created by Colruyt itself, as producers deliver their products without these extra layers of plastic. However, Colruyt is not the only supermarket using double packaging, as cases of double packaging can be found in different supermarkets in Belgium, as can be seen in the video

examples of double packaging that were found in Colruyt in Jette

Beyond the needless use of plastic, overpackaging poses several other issues:

We have the power! 

Consumers have the power to make retailers change their ways. A recent report by Recycling Netwerk on packaging waste prevention and reuse in Belgium identified empowered consumers as a powerful group to demand a reduction in packaging. We encourage everyone visiting Belgian supermarkets to report overpackaging or double packaging via the website of Fost Plus, and, to refuse buying double packaged products.

Related Tags

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

PFAS: de reden dat hobby kippeneieren gevaarlijk zijn voor je gezondheid

PFAS: de reden dat hobby kippeneieren gevaarlijk zijn voor je gezondheid

Amsterdam, 30 januari 2024 – PFAS, de “forever chemical”, zit inmiddels overal: in ons voedsel, in het water en zelfs in de eieren van hobbykippen. Hoe heeft het zo ver kunnen komen? Transparency International Nederland (TI-NL) zoekt naar de grondoorzaken van deze problematiek in het kader van haar project weeffouten in de democratie.

read more
Digital deposit: we know little more than we did a year ago

Digital deposit: we know little more than we did a year ago

Een jaar geleden kreeg de Belgische industrie de opdracht om te bewijzen dat hun digitaal statiegeld een betere oplossing is tegen zwerfvuil dan het klassieke systeem. We delen onze conclusies over het klankbordgroepproces en over wat de pilots ons hebben geleerd (of niet).

read more