Plastic packaging with an expiration date?

A new sticker program is making Brits rethink their shopping habits.

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 shared with 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.