A MINI protest was held outside Tavistock’s Tesco store earlier this month to raise awareness of the unregulated production of plastic.

A group of Tavistock residents met at Tesco to draw attention to the amount of unnecessary and unrecycleable plastic that is being used by the food retail industry.

A spokesperson for the protest group said Tesco wasn’t the worst offender of the UK supermarkets, but it had ‘by far’ the largest share of the market and needed to take more responsibility for the plastic pollution it was creating.

The spokesperson said: ‘Since the 1950s, the world has produced 8.3-billion tonnes of plastic of which only nine per cent has been recycled.

‘Production is increasing not decreasing and it is a sobering thought that the 91 per cent that is not recycled or incinerated will take up to 1,000 years to decompose.

‘There is a growing awareness of the impact of plastic pollution on our planet. One million seabirds and animals are killed every year and the micro-particles of degenerating plastic are entering into our food chain and polluting even the most pristine of environments like the mountain ranges of the Pyrenees.

‘But what can be done? Recyclable plastic is an incredibly efficient packaging for many items and is here to stay.

‘What must go is the unnecessary packaging of fruit and vegetables that could easily be sold loose. Products sold in mixed packaging of cardboard and plastic combinations or in some cases, two to three different types of plastic for one product are impossible to recycle.

‘Black plastic and plastic film are also non-recyclable. As consumers we can make choices and on a very simple and quietly dogged level we can politely return our plastic packaging to the store.’