Our scorecard assesses the performance of the four major supermarkets in the 2025-26 financial year.
Latest findings:
✅ Woolworths broke its silence on plastic packaging, becoming the first of the big two supermarkets to disclose its plastic packaging use, publishing its plastic intensity for the first time in 2026. Woolworths self-reported using 10 grams of plastic per unit sold in 2025-26, and at its 2026 Annual General Meeting, committed to continuing to publish this figure.
✅ Coles has held firm on its policy banning plastic toys as promotional giveaway items. Its biggest competitor, Woolworths, once again faced backlash over wasteful plastic use in its Ooshies promotion in 2026.
❌ Coles customers are left with excessive plastic packaging when ordering loose fruit and vegetables online, with 95% of online orders containing plastic produce bags for loose items. Woolworths’ staff training effectively cuts out this plastic packaging, with less than 8% of orders receiving plastic produce bags.
❌ ALDI customers have a hard time buying staple fruit and vegetables loose. Customers can’t buy carrots or mushrooms in ALDI stores without plastic packaging.
❌ Shoppers continue to be penalised for trying to shop without packaging on their fresh produce, with loose fresh produce more expensive than pre-packaged produce in 65% of cases.
❌ None of the supermarkets have set a plastic reduction target, and reporting is generally fragmented.
Carrots at Woolworths sold loose for $2.60 / kg or bagged in plastic for $2.40 / kg. Photos taken by a shopper conducting surveys for the 2026 supermarket plastics audit by the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
Plastic Investigation Unit
Since 2023, our Plastic Investigators have been investigating prices and packaging in their local supermarkets.
Evidence suggests that the best way to reduce food waste is to buy fruit and vegetables loose, and only the quantity needed. Yet in 2026, our Plastic Investigation Unit helped us discover that, on average, loose fruit and vegetables were more expensive than the same items pre-packaged in around 65% of cases (Woolworths 62%, Coles 71%, ALDI 60%).
Net bags are really insidious. With most of them it’s impossible to get the fruit out without creating microplastics all over the kitchen bench.
– Supermarket Plastic Investigator
That’s a slight improvement on 2025, when it was more than 70%. The price difference between the loose and pre-packaged produce is also decreasing; in 2024, we estimated that a household of four would pay $155 more per year just buying potatoes, onions and apples; in 2026 this dropped to $122. But let’s be clear about what these numbers show us: shoppers doing the right thing by choosing less plastic are still being penalised.
We’re calling on Coles, Woolworths and ALDI to scrap this pricing strategy, by making loose produce the same price or cheaper, every time. Add your name to our petition now.
Our Plastic Investigation Unit also placed online orders to see how loose fruit and vegetables are packaged for home deliveries. Orders were placed in all states and territories in Australia, and the results were shocking.
“I was shocked at how much of a difference there was between the two major chains, it was immediately visible that Woolworths had taken steps to reduce the plastic load while Coles had multiple soft plastic wrappings. It’s clear how unnecessary that is and how easy it is to do much better in looking after our environment.”
– Ally, VIC
Orders placed in Brisbane from Woolworths and Coles in October 2026.
From Coles, more than 95% of orders arrived with plastic produce bags, and many orders saw instances of excessive plastic bag use – such as three items split across two bags, and having a single bulb of garlic placed in its own plastic bag.
Woolworths orders were very different – the vast majority of orders arrived without any plastic produce bags (>92%).
“I was extremely disappointed with the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging in my Coles online order. A single bulb of garlic in a plastic bag – really!? I won’t be ordering from Coles online again.“
– Hannah , NSW
“I don’t usually get groceries delivered partly due to unnecessary plastic, so I was pleasantly surprised at how Woolworths had next to no plastic packaging in their delivery. That made it all the more stark how much plastic the Coles delivery had – even for things that have their own natural packaging, like corn.”
– Rhiannon, ACT
Good
It’s a start
Not good
Not applicable