A survey reveals 40% of consumers would be happy to pay more for cutlery if it was sustainably sourced or reusable, with 59% stating that single-use items such as containers and cutlery should incur a charge now.
Following the UK Government’s announcement that single-use plastics will be banned from October 2023, Vypr, the product intelligence platform, conducted a survey using a “nationally representative” sample of its 65,000 users for its views on England’s single-use plastic ban.
The ban is set to include single-use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers.
According to the survey, less than 20% felt that the food retail sector was doing enough, with 37% not decided.
43.1% of consumers feel that food retailers such as coffee shops, takeaways and supermarkets with “food to go” are not doing enough to protect the environment.
Only 13% stated that they received recycled cutlery when ordering food to go, 29% stated they received wooden cutlery and 17% received plastic options. A large proportion, 41%, stated they used their own.
Only 29% of respondents stated they receive wooden cutlery versus 13% recycled.
