unloading the products from the numerous carrier bags i&rsquod acquired at the checkout, i realised that my kitchen contained more plastic than the average wag&rsquos purse and enough cardboard to build a whole series of blue peter specials.there was, in fact, more wrapping than food. empty boxes, redundant now the cereal was in storage jars, lined the kitchen worktop.related contentschool remembers baglan train victim damian john james fondlyconcert for family of cameron comey and search team to be held on st david&39s daycarmarthen recycling firm handed £55k fine following safety breachescardboard sleeves from multipacks of tins, yoghurt and toothpaste were strewn over the floor and, by far the worst offender, a tray, plastic cover and clingfilm from one pack of four advocados. and there&rsquos me thinking fruit already came with nature&rsquos own packaging the skin.but is it realistic, or even possible, to expect food to have no packaging the statistics on waste are frightening.our consumption of heavily packaged food has helped to earn britain its reputation as the rubbish bin of europe. and pop down to a tip such as the one at derwen fawr or llansamlet in swansea and the amount of cardboard waste being hauled out of cars is truly astonishing.now, i have never, ever claimed to be green. i&rsquove been known to sneak an empty bottle or two into our ordinary bin bags when my wife isn&rsquot looking, and i generally baulk at the idea of recycling.but it is food packaging that is my real bugbear and which i know is responsible for twothirds of the rubbish in my bin bags every week.the floor is littered with it after every shop. i can be kneedeep in cardboard boxes, plastic cartons, paper bags, polystyrene inserts and cellophane wrapping.by the time i&rsquove gathered it all up and put it in the appropriate bins, they can be so fulltobursting that it can all seem a bit of an ordeal. and yes, i admit it, such is the mountain of unwanted debris, i just can&rsquot always be bothered.and i wouldn&rsquot have to if only the amount of packaging was cut back in the first place.green campaigners have called on retailers and producers to do more to cut the volume of food packaging that ends up in household bins. they say shoppers are being &ldquobombarded&rdquo by unnecessary food wrappings. there is even a suggestion disgruntled shoppers should remove the excess packaging from their purchases and discard it at the checkout.a cauliflower wrapped in a plastic bag, four apples on a plastic tray, wrapped in cellophane, a ready meal for two with enough packaging to leave you stunned.you get the drift.unpacking the weekly shop used to mean emptying your reusable shopping bag and putting the contents away in the fridge and cupboards. now it means grappling with the scissors and generating enough landfill to create a small country. in fact, there has been a 12 per cent increase in the volume of packaging waste produced across the uk over the past five years. retail packaging now typically makes up more than 40 per cent of the waste in our bins &mdash that&rsquos 4.5 million tonnes.trading standards would surely be interested in my weekly shop.why, for example, do my seedless grapes have to come wrapped in a plastic bag with a speciallymade and very nonenvironmentally friendly plastic zipperand what about those avocados am i to think that they aren&rsquot comfortable unless they&rsquore sitting comfortable in a specially moulded tray and it is often the premium ranges that are the worst culprits for packaging.to persuade us to spend more, supermarkets feel their premium products have to look nicer. for some reason, this involves using extra plastic. but however good it looks, food packaging is meant to be instantly dispensable. the result is we end up paying more merely so that we can throw more away.paul saunders, an ynysforgan dadoftwo who i meet up with on a trip to morrisons in morfa parc, says his average weekly shop costs in the region of £110.&ldquoi hate to think how much of that is down to plastic and cardboard which i throw over once i get home,&rdquo he adds.&ldquoof course, some packaging is necessary.&ldquobut there is no need for my baking potatoes to be sold in fours, on wrapped plastic trays. and why are oranges and lemons sold in bags&rdquoswansea council, which currently recycles close to an impressive 60 per cent of all municipal waste, says buying products with minimal packaging such as loose fruit or vegetables rather than prepackaged is one of the easiest ways to cut back on household waste.&ldquoa large percentage of waste can be recycled, saving resources in the process,&rdquo adds a spokesman.&ldquobut if people get into a new way of thinking and choose things such as reusable or refillable containers it would help dramatically cut back on waste in the first place.&rdquofor every £50 you spend on food, around £8 pays for the packaging it comes in.for a weekly shop of £100, that&rsquos £16, which means that over a year, the average household is probably adding £832 to its annual shopping bill for stuff that goes straight in the bin.and what&rsquos worse is that at least 60 per cent of the contents from an average rubbish bin can be recycled.with this in mind, i head out shopping with my listi&rsquoll throw away seven times my own body weight in rubbish this year, so surely it couldn&rsquot be that tough to buy what i need and leave all the packaging behind in the processfirst stop was tesco in swansea, where fruit and vegetables are relatively easy to buy loose and i put them straight into a shopping basket instead of separate plastic bags.a bit of careful arranging makes sure that tomatoes and softer fruit like pears and plums go on top of bananas, broccoli, lemons and potatoes. but, while some produce is available loose, i have to pass on several things on my list.cauliflowers are only available in a plastic bag which i can&rsquot remove because it has the price printed on the plastic.why can&rsquot the supermarket just stick the label straight onto the skin like they have done with the melon and mangoesas for potatoes i counted 36 different compartments set aside for them yesterday. just two contained loose ones.elsewhere in tesco, i pick up fresh cod, bacon and a block of cheddar ignoring the strange look i get when i ask if each item can each be wrapped in just one piece of plastic instead of the layers they usually use.but it doesn&rsquot come naturally.also cucumbers, which are sold in both full and half size, are both wrapped in plastic wrapping, why can&rsquot they just have a sticker with a bar code on like the swedes.carrots are also sold pre packed as well as individually. is there any need to sell prepacked carrots, when you can just weigh them and just get the bar code sticker scannedshopper huw arnold says he tries his best to buy loose products rather than those that are heavily packaged, but it is not easy, adding &ldquothe whole thing seems to be geared towards plastic rather than food.&ldquothe amount of wrapping we throw away as a family every week leaves me stunned.&rdquoyou know what huw. me too 
