There’s more to a bag of apples than meets the eye: its plastic packaging can prevent waste, create waste, and sometimes do both at once.
Plaid Cymru’s 2026 manifesto included a commitment to “phase out unnecessary single-use plastics, starting with packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables where this offers negligible benefit for shelf life”. But there are questions about how this could work in practice for shoppers, retailers and waste reduction.
Packaging can protect fresh produce and reduce spoilage, but it can also generate avoidable plastic waste and encourage over-purchase. The challenge is identifying where packaging is genuinely needed, and where restrictions could reduce waste without increasing food spoilage, costs or supply-chain pressures.
In Wales, action on plastic waste has already included banning some single-use items. Welsh Ministers can amend the list of banned products if further action is needed, and attention is turning to where this might be. This Plastic Free July, we explore the growing interest in the fruit and veg aisle, and look at what tackling plastic packaging on fresh produce in Wales might involve.
Why focus on fresh produce packaging?
Plastic packaging is widely used for fresh fruit and vegetables in UK supermarkets, often in the form of films, bags, wraps, nets and trays. Around 70,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year to package whole fresh fruit and vegetables in the UK. Much of this packaging is single-use, difficult to recycle, and can contribute to residual waste, litter, plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions linked to plastic production and disposal.
Fresh produce packaging is often made from flexible plastics. These materials can technically be recycled, but are difficult to recycle in practice because collection arrangements are inconsistent, sorting and reprocessing infrastructure is limited, and contamination can be a problem. The House of Commons Library reports that only around 4% of plastic film is recycled in the UK.
Plastic packaging also has wider environmental impacts. Globally, 430 million tonnes of plastic are produced and consumed each year, with 36% used for packaging. Plastics generated 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 - 3.4% of the world’s total emissions, a share projected to surge to ~19% by 2040 if trends continue.
Using less packaging in the first place and selling more produce loose could help cut plastic waste and pollution. Research by the environmental NGO WRAP found that selling apples, bananas and potatoes loose rather than pre-packed could cut ~8,800 tonnes of plastic packaging per year in the UK and save an estimated 80,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year, reflecting emissions avoided from plastic production and waste processing.
Links with food waste
Packaging can also influence how much food households buy and waste. UK households throw away an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of edible fresh fruit and vegetables each year, worth around £4 billion. In Wales, household food waste in 2021/22 included 61,000 tonnes of edible fresh vegetables and salads and 17,000 tonnes of edible fresh fruit.
Pre-packed produce can encourage over-purchasing because shoppers may have to buy fixed quantities, such as a bag of apples, rather than the amount they need. WRAP estimates that shifting commonly wasted produce such as apples, bananas and potatoes to loose sales could save around 60,000 tonnes of edible food from being wasted each year in the UK.
However, the relationship between packaging and food waste is not straightforward. Plastic wrapping can protect more delicate produce and reduce spoilage. One study found that, for cucumbers shipped abroad, the environmental cost of a single plastic wrap was much smaller than the environmental cost of wasting the cucumber itself, and that wrapping reduced retail losses from 9.4% to 4.6%.
What are other countries doing?
Several countries are already restricting plastic packaging for fresh produce. The EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation includes a ban on single-use plastic packaging for fresh, unprocessed fruit and vegetables under 1.5kg from January 2030, with exemptions where packaging remains necessary.
France has progressively prohibited plastic packaging for many fruits and vegetables since January 2022 and extended the policy through a 2023 decree to cover virtually all fresh fruit and vegetables by mid-2026. Spain introduced a similar measure from 2023, banning plastic packaging for fresh produce sold in portions under 1.5kg.
In the UK, there is currently no ban on fresh produce packaging, although the voluntary UK Food and Drink Pact aims for 50% of uncut fruit and vegetables to be sold loose by 2030. Major supermarkets have also trialled plastic-free produce sections to test customer response and impacts on food waste.
What powers and options does Wales have?
Environmental policy, including waste, is largely devolved. Wales has already banned certain single-use plastic products through the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Act 2023, and is part of the UK-wide Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility scheme.
In principle, Wales could introduce measures targeting plastic produce packaging. Options include legislation to restrict or ban packaging on specified items, particularly where packaging provides little shelf-life benefit. However, the UK Internal Market Act 2020 could complicate a Wales-only ban, because goods lawfully sold in another part of the UK may be able to be sold in Wales. This could reduce the effectiveness of a Welsh measure unless UK-wide alignment or an exclusion to the Act were secured.
Other options include working with the UK Government on coordinated rules, using charges or levies to discourage unnecessary packaging, supporting refill and reuse schemes, strengthening packaging reduction incentives, improving recycling and labelling requirements, and using Extended Producer Responsibility ‘fee modulation’ to incentivise prevention, reuse and more recyclable design.
Practical considerations
Any changes would need to account for supply-chain, retailer and consumer impacts. Supermarket systems are currently designed around packaged produce, so moving to loose sales may require changes to handling, transport, display, weighing and checkout processes. Phased implementation could help businesses adapt.
Consumer behaviour will also matter. WRAP’s 2025 Love Food Hate Waste survey found that 56% of UK adults who buy fresh fruit and vegetables preferred loose produce, while 78% said they would be likely to buy their usual fruit and vegetables loose if it was sold that way. However, some shoppers prefer packaged produce for convenience, price or hygiene reasons, so clear pricing, good signage and attractive loose displays are likely to be important.
Affordability and accessibility may also need to be considered. Loose sales can help households buy only what they need, but lower-income households may rely on value packs or multi-buy offers. Some disabled customers may also find pre-packaged produce more convenient.
Recent Senedd interest
In November 2025, the Senedd debated a Member’s legislative proposal to introduce a ban on single‑use plastic packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables where it provides little or no shelf-life benefit. The motion was agreed, and the debate showed cross-party engagement, while also recognising possible trade-offs such as food waste and costs.
Reducing unnecessary plastic packaging for fresh produce could support Wales’s waste prevention, climate and pollution goals. The key policy challenge is designing measures that remove avoidable packaging while protecting food quality, affordability, accessibility and supply-chain resilience.
Article by Lorna Scurlock, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament
