Packaging

The issue of packaging goes hand-in-hand with that of waste. Roughly half the 10 million tonnes of packaging that ended up as waste in the UK in 2006 came from food and drink. Reducing packaging and using recycled and recyclable materials can cut costs, reduce natural resource depletion, ease pressures on landfill and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

However, packaging is needed in some form for storage and transportation, and is a powerful marketing tool used to differentiate products and meet legal labelling requirements.

Initiatives by WRAP are making progress with consumers (Love Food Hate Waste), and its work with individual food producers and retailers is also reaping dividends.

Ethical Argument

A complicating factor in efforts to cut the environmental footprint of food packaging is that reducing packaging sometimes increases food waste, which can offset any gains.

Gaps in current thinking such as targets on packaging waste, the impact of dyes, bleaches and coatings on the environment, and the vast waste caused by the catering industry, also complicate efforts to tackle the issues around packaging.

Priorities

• Government and retailer led guidance to consumers can help cut food waste, but re-education and a change in our relationship with food is needed for long-term change.
• Policy makers should include the food service sector in target setting. It is a more diverse sector than food retail, but as big in terms of turnover.
• Policies on packaging and waste reduction must be equipped to tackle technological innovation and changes in consumer behaviour.
• Government efforts to encourage less packaging should continue to focus on win-wins for business, but government should consider introducing further incentives, and even rules to help align the marketplace to reduce packaging.