- Why reduce packaging?
- Government Intervention
- Industry initiatives
- The benefits of reduction

Why reduce packaging?

Defra estimates that 10.5 million tonnes of packaging entered the UK waste stream in 2006; according to Envirowise the food and drink industry is responsible for over 50% of this.

Over five million tonnes of food industry packaging enters the waste stream every year. In cost terms, Envirowise estimates the raw materials alone used to produce this packaging cost £4 billion, but this figure does not include costs of disposal or recovery, or any wider social costs (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions).

As much of the packaging from food and grocery is used to protect food products, it is disposed of by households, into the municipal waste stream. Historically a large proportion of household waste has been disposed of in landfill, with the environmental and social consequences of this.

As many materials used in packaging (e.g. glass, cardboard, some plastics) can be reused or recycled, disposal to landfill is not an efficient use of these scarce resources.
 

Government Intervention

Given the amount of packaging entering the UK (and other EU nations’) waste streams, particularly the large proportions going to landfill, government has intervened both at an EU and UK level.

The main Government initiatives have focused on reducing the impact of packaging and packaging waste on the environment:

• First by influencing packaging recovery and recycling rates, and so reduce the amount of packaging disposed into landfill
• Second by influencing the amount of packaging actually used in the supply chain

UK Packaging Regulations 2007

The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations seek to:

• Encourage the minimisation of packaging and packaging waste
• Incentivise reuse and increase the recovery and recycling of packaging waste

The ultimate aim of the Regulation is to ensure the UK attains the recovery and recycling targets set out the EU’s Council Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste.

The amount of packaging waste producers have to recover and recycle is determined, in part, by the amount and type of packaging they handle.

As a result of these regulations, several new acronyms and phrases have come into common use within the packaging industry, including: ‘PRNs’, ‘PERNs’, ‘obligated companies’ and ‘compliance companies’.

The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003

The key element of this Regulation is the requirement that packaging should be manufactured so that the packaging volume and weight are limited to the minimum amount that is necessary to maintain the required levels of safety, hygiene and acceptance for the packed product and for the consumer.
 

Industry initiatives

Legislation is only one way to encourage reductions in packaging and packaging waste. While packaging is often essential (for safety, containment etc) Envirowise estimates that on average it accounts for 13% of production costs.

This is a significant cost to the food and grocery sector, so the sector is also proactive in seeking ways to reduce the amount of packaging used, both packaging which is not seen by shoppers (e.g. boxes used to transport goods) and packaging used in goods.

Recent industry initiatives

Packaging reduction has become a key initiative for the food and grocery sector, driven by consumer demand, corporate responsibility considerations, media exposure and legislation.

Most important are retailer packaging reduction initiatives. These are updated regularly, but as of May 2007 the headline targets are as follows:

• ASDA: 25% reduction in own-labelling packaging by 2008
• Morrisons: use 15% less own brand packaging by 2010
• Sainsburys: 5% reduction in packaging by 2008
• Tesco: 25% reduction in own-label and branded packaging by 2010
• Marks & Spencer: 25% reduction in packaging by 2012

There are now many examples and case studies of how manufacturers have made real progress in reducing their packaging. Many of these are available on the WRAP web-site (see link below).

The Courtauld Commitment

The Courtauld Commitment was launched in July 2005 to demonstrate retailer commitment to waste minimisation. Signatories must pledge their commitment at executive level to support WRAP in achieving its objectives which are:

• To design out packaging waste growth by 2008
• To deliver absolute reductions in packaging waste by March 2010
• To identify ways to tackle the problem of food waste

Initially thirteen retailers, representing 92% of the UK grocery market signed up (Asda, Boots, Budgens, The Co-operative Group, Londis, Iceland, Kwik Save, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose). More recently a number of large food and grocery manufacturers have also signed the Commitment, including Heinz, Northern Foods and Unilever.

In November 2006, at a one year on event, the signatories outlined the range of actions they have taken to embed household waste reduction in their corporate strategies. They also set out their action plans for the future in three main areas:

1. Food waste
2. Biopolymers and compostable packaging; and
3. Consistency of on-pack recycling information for consumers
    

The benefits of reduction

WRAP and Envirowise give a large number of examples of where real progress in materials and processing has made significant reductions to packaging in recent years. Taking just three:

• A well know brand of beer has reduced its bottle weight by 23% from 2005 - 2006
• Projects have shown that there is a potential to reduce the weight of the 500 ml plastic bottle from 25g to 20g and the 2 litre bottle from 42g to 40g. WRAP point out that if these new ‘Best in Class’ plastic bottle weights were adopted across the UK carbonated soft drinks industry this would result in a saving of 3,400 tonnes of plastic (PET) per year. This would generate a material cost saving of £2.7m and an energy saving of 2,811 million kWh
• The average weight of glass containers has been reduced by about 30% since 1980