[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by Eric

But, when you walk around the store, looking at the stuff on the shelves, you see that a lot of it is packed in, you guessed it, plastic

Well, that's were the Germans are saving the World instead of trying to invade it. The Supermarkets have various bins & buckets by the door so you can strip the packaging from your shopping & stick it in their bins. (Which the goes off to recycling).