Uproar over Coles’ individually packaged hot cross buns
Melbourne woman Caroline Lambert has sparked a backlash after her photo of individually packaged hot cross buns went viral.
Retail
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A Melbourne woman has caused a stir after snapping a photograph of hot cross buns in her local Coles store which are sold individually in plastic containers.
Caroline Lambert shared a photo of a pile of individually packaged buns on Instagram last week with the caption: “This plastic-fest was spotted @colessupermarkets in Melbourne Central this morning. Super depressing Coles. Your customers want you to do better with your environmental responsibilities #waronwasteau #waronwaste #zerowaste #environment #singleuse #environmentalshamefiles”.
It attracted an outpouring of likes and comments, and was later shared on the Facebook page of environmental group One Million Women.
The group was previously behind the #LeaveItOnTheShelf campaign, which encouraged shoppers to boycott plastic-packaged fruit and vegetables to show supermarkets the practice was “unacceptable”.
After sharing Ms Lambert’s picture, the group pledged to bring the campaign back – and said it might be time to add hot cross buns to the list of boycotted items.
The Facebook post sparked hundreds of comments and thousands of shares and reactions.
“I also am disappointed every time I go to coles! SO much bulky packaging!!!” one Facebook user posted, while another said: “I refuse to buy plastic packaged fruit & veg. If we all stopped buying it, they would stop packaging it. Their excuse is ‘the customers want it’.”
“I rarely shop at supermarkets. Shop locally at markets and from a whole food or organic store where unpackaged bread, fruit and veg is the norm. This extreme case of stupidity by Coles will be shunned and boycotted by everyone with a shred of environmental conscience,” another wrote.
A Coles spokeswoman told news.com.au the item was designed to give customers more choice.
“We have placed the single buns in the recyclable packaging so that we can give customers the option of buying a single hot cross bun,” the spokeswoman said.
“The recyclable packaging keeps them fresh in stores where we don’t have single item display units where customers can pick them up using tongs.
“The packaging is recyclable in kerbside recycling bins. While this is not how our hot cross buns are generally packaged, to offer convenience a small number of stores have packed buns in this way.”
The spokeswoman said Coles was “constantly reviewing our packaging to make it more environmentally friendly”.
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Originally published as Uproar over Coles’ individually packaged hot cross buns