The British newspaper - backed by the likes of actress and author Meera Syall, political campaigner Peter Tatchell, acclaimed illustrator Ralf Steadman and agony aunt Claire Rayner – is waging war on shrink-wrapped plastic with the ‘Campaign Against Waste’, an initiative designed to draw attention to what they refer to as an ‘absurd and excessive’ overuse of wrapping, much of it on items that are protected already by nature’s design.

The aim is to slim down paper and plastic covering and reduce mountains of needless waste. A generous estimate that 60% of said packaging is recycled means 5 million tonnes of waste is being dropped into the ground annually.

In 2002 the Environment Agency warned that landfill sites in the South East would be full by 2009.

Eight percent of global oil production is used to make plastic, a quarter of which is used up on superfluous packaging; climate change is hastened by greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacture of the products, and goods are more expensive because of presentation.

Meera Syal says: “Very few things aren’t over-packed nowadays, but I don’t mind just getting a plain paper bag. Maybe the supermarkets should take the approach of the farmers’ markets,’ while Hunter S Thompson’s collaborative cartoonist Ralph Steadman said: “We don’t need any packaging at all. The whole thing is ridiculous. You find things like parsnips wrapped in cling film and then wrapped in a plastic bag. People should refuse packaging and just put what they buy straight in
their bags.”

The Indy is asking you to mail them with examples of absurd packaging to waste@independent.co.uk.