I prefer to purchase my meat from the butcher shop in Woolworths as the supermarket in my area still has a butcher shop attached. I can select my individual meat, and the meat is wrapped in paper [with a thin plastic film] and handed to me. I select the exact meat product I want and they wrap, weigh and attach the price for me. This is the same in their deli section and fish monger, you get relatively fresh product that has not been processed.

Over the Christmas break all the butchers were sent on summer holidays, this is great as this is the perfect holiday period. So you can imagine my surprise when I had to purchase head sealed in plastic wrapping. This is an environmental disaster, I need to cut the steak free from the plastic and throw this plastic into landfill as it is the non-recycle type of plastic, this is a real issue, these large supermarkets are increasing their plastic output and we as consumers are forced to accept these limited options.

Ok, for me this was just over the Christmas break so my waste footprint is still relatively low. What I do know is competitor Coles has closed all their butcher shops in all their supermarkets and only retail pre-packaged meat wrapped heavily in plastic. When I speak to the Woolworths butchers, they tell me they no longer train apprentices so they are seeking to phase out their in-store butcher shops and redeploy staff.