Plastic wrapped in plastic: the wasteful reality of America's grocery stores

On a shopping trip to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and other leading markets, plastic feels more plentiful than the food itself

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A bundle of six small brie cheeses from Trader Joe's seemed to sum it all up. Each 0.9oz wheel was encased in flexible clear plastic, bound together in a plastic sack, to be sold to Americans who might carry it home in a single-use plastic shopping bag, none of it apparently recyclable.

Supermarkets in the United Kingdom have at least attempted to reduce the more than 800,000 tons of plastic waste they sell each year, starting plastic bottle deposit schemes and ending sales of plastic bags.