Packaging-free shops may tackle plastic but risk increasing food waste

Shops that let you bring your own containers aim to tackle the plastic packaging scourge, but they may not be the perfect solution

Ozgur Coskun / Alamy Stock Photo

By Leah Crane

SUPERMARKETS are full of food, but they are also full of packaging: cereal bagged in plastic sits inside a cardboard box, cucumbers are shrink-wrapped with care. Now trendy packaging-free shops are popping up in Europe and North America where you bring your own containers and buy exactly as much as you need.

While the trend started with small, local shops, even retail giants are getting in on the action. Waitrose, one of the UK’s biggest grocery store …