OTLEY residents have taken their environmental concerns to one of the town’s supermarkets.

The Inglewood Drive Environment Action group (IDEA), formed by residents of one street, decided to target their first efforts on the issue of non-recyclable plastic. So they collected plastic over a week and took it to their nearest supermarket, Waitrose, to discuss the company’s policies.

Victoria Smith from IDEA said: “In Oxford, Waitrose are trialling refill stations where people can bring their own containers, and reducing or completely eliminating plastic throughout the rest of the store. We wanted to show Otley Waitrose that local residents would really support a scheme like this.”

The group has a wide range of other environmental concerns that it aims to tackle - including the wide use of palm oil in products. Inglewood Drive residents are being urged to bring their ideas forward, too.

Waitrose, explaining its position on its website, says: “Over the next few years we’ll be removing unnecessary packaging where we can, and introducing alternative packaging materials to make recycling easier for our customers.

“Our ultimate aim is to eliminate unnecessary plastic and make all our own-brand packaging reusable or out of widely recyclable or home-compostable material by 2023.”