Introduction

Supermarket chains have increasing power over our lives. Many of us have little choice but to shop at them, at least for a proportion of our food requirements. The chains use their oligopoly to foist packaging upon us that few of us want.

We are the concerned public. We want to exercise our right to decide what we buy. We don't want to pay for a polystyrene tray when we just want four peaches. We don't want to carry home and dispose of moulded plastic containers we didn't ask for. What happened to paper bags? What happened to buying what you need? What happened to 'waste not, want not'? Something has gone wrong, and we believe marketing is responsible.

With this blog, we plan to chart some of the worst packaging excesses, and 'name and shame' the offenders. We welcome your contributions: email the 'webmaster' at totallywasted.org and send your photos or stories of packaging excesses. We look forward to hearing from you!

The TotallyWasted.org team.