Band 7+: Some people feel that manufacturers and supermarkets have the responsibility to reduce the amount of packaging of goods. While others argue that customers should avoid buying goods with a lot of packaging. Discuss both views and give your opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

There is an ongoing debate over whether manufacturers and supermarkets should take responsibility for reducing packaging waste or whether consumers should avoid purchasing excessively packaged products. Although consumers play an indispensable role in environmental protection, producers and retailers should reduce the amount of plastic used for packaging goods and use biodegradable materials that can be recycled.

In recent years it has become common among citizens to purchase excessively packaged goods, which offer both convenience and affordability. As a result, this consumer habit may lead to severe environmental problems, such as pollution and health problems. By shifting their behaviour from purchasing plastic-packaged items to purchasing carbon-packaged items can help to mitigate this problem. Particularly, manufacturers can change their packaging styles by reducing the amount of plastic they are using for wrapping and start to work on other alternatives, which are less harmful to the environment. Additionally, customers may bring their own shopping bags to the supermarkets or grocery stores instead of using disposable packaging, which is thrown away and pollutes the ground, which in turn helps to reducing contamination of the environment by the decreased use of plastic packaging.

These arguments notwithstanding, I still stick to the idea that producers and retailers should avoid unnecessary packaging and use more biodegradable products for packaging. When manufacturers use plastics efficiently for just packaging purposes instead of decorations, they may be more likely to reduce the amount of waste, which should be recycled and requires less heat for processing. Another significant factor can be big supermarket chains, which purchase only packages from biodegradable materials and require producers adapt to sustainable packaging practises. As a result, this approach may help to shift from harmful packaging to eco-friendly packaging products, and prevent harm to the environment.

In conclusion, although consumers play a crucial role in reducing the amount of packaging by changing their habits, producers and retailers can mitigate this problem by using biodegradable products and only packaging for essential purposes.