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Imagine if All Plastic Packaging Came With An Expiry Date
The Plastic Expiry Date is a small sticker with a big message to make Brits rethink their shopping habits.
Plastic packaging with an expiry date?
Picture this… it’s the year 3020. You are no longer around. Your plastic bottle from 2020 has finally broken down. It takes from 500–1000 years for plastics to degrade. That’s why Gagandeep Jhuti and Joe Foale-Groves, two advertising creatives who want to highlight the impact of single-use plastic on the planet, created the Plastic Expiry Date Sticker. By showing customers the centuries it will take for their wrapping to decompose, the pair are hoping the stickers will help people to rethink their habits when it comes to buying products wrapped in single-use plastic.
![but stickers have been spotted around the UK as eco-friendly shoppers try to help spread the message. You can print off your own and “spam the meal-deal aisle”.](https://www.brightvibes.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/phpQWRBhn.jpeg)
A creative way to get consumers to really think about their impact
Aleteia reports that some city supermarkets in the UK have started adding a new sticker to the packaging of some of their most popular products. The sticker lists the expiration date of the plastic wrapping used for the product, and more often than not its lifespan is centuries longer than that of its consumer.
The Plastic Expiry Date initiative is the brain child of Gagandeep Jhuti and Joe Foale-Groves, two advertising creatives who want to highlight the impact of single-use plastic on the planet.
By showing customers the centuries it will take for their wrapping to decompose, the duo are hoping the stickers will help people to rethink their habits when it comes to buying products wrapped in single-use plastic, like the millions of ready-made meals so popular with office workers.
“The ultimate goal would be for supermarkets to add the Plastic Expiry Date to packaging themselves, as well as hurrying to remove single-use plastic packaging from their shelves,” Jhuti and Foale-Groves told Manchester Evening News.
Such initiatives are creative ways to be smarter about how we can each do our part to care for creation and ensure a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come.
Source: Aleteia.org
![Such initiatives are creative ways to be smarter about how we can each do our part to care for creation and ensure a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come. And perhaps only buy oranges with the organic, biodegradable wrappers.](https://www.brightvibes.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/phpw1zNE3.png)
The initiative seems to have had an impact
The pair have had coverage in the The Daily Mail, The Sun, UNILAD and Manchester Evening News, as well as being discussed on the Jeremy Vine show on British television last week.
"It was amazing to see that the campaign has resonated with so many people, we’re constantly having people reach out and help us share the project and call out supermarkets on Twitter," they told llbonline. "It’s definitely encouraging that so many people in Britain care about the environment and want to see more drastic action from supermarkets. Although seeing our stickers on the Jeremy Vine Show and hearing him describe us as ‘guerilla activists’ was definitely a highlight."
Source: lbbonline
![They snuck the ridiculously long expiry dates onto plastic-wrapped food items as an environmental message to both shoppers and supermarkets. They spread thousands of the stickers around London, focusing mainly on the meal deal aisles of supermarket branches.](https://www.brightvibes.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/phpUhB4ce.jpeg)
![Gagandeep Jhuti and Joe Foale-Groves created a series of plastic expiry date stickers that were a parody of the best before dates that are seen on almost every consumable item available. Download the stickers here ?](https://www.brightvibes.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/phpQ9lpws.jpeg)
Want to Help?
1. Download Plastic Expiry Date stickers
2. Print them on label paper
3. Spam the meal deal aisle
4. Spread the word. #plasticexpirydate