Call for Defra to develop Packaging Strategy

In a report on the sustainability of the retail chain published at the weekend, the Commission led by Sir Jonathan Porritt said current government policies on waste were “insufficient to achieve the required step-change towards sustainable use of resources”.

In particular, the report entitled “Green, Healthy and Fair” singled out the packaging producer responsibility system – known as the PRN system – as “insufficient incentive to design out waste”, since compliance costs were centralised by the packaging chain.

It also suggested the UK's implementation of Europe's Packaging Directive had “not put high enough costs on producers to force them to rethink product design”, and hit out at the weight-based targets for not driving recycled content or re-use.

The essential requirements regulations, which forbid excess packaging, are “vague, self-monitored and poorly enforced”, the Commission went on.

And, although it did give credit to the voluntary producer responsibility agreement The Courtauld Commitment for engaging large retailers, it said the Commitment's targets “now look unambitious and lack urgency”.

Strategy

Instead, the Commission said Defra should follow-up its English Waste Strategy of 2007 by developing a Packaging Strategy with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, WRAP, manufacturers, producers and retailers.

A new Packaging Strategy should include measures for reducing packaging waste at source, encouraging the use of compostable packaging, and developing the long-term infrastructure needed to recycle packaging waste – including “closed loop” systems in which packaging was is recycled into new packaging materials.

The Commission said the UK has “one of the worst records of dumping waste in landfill in Europe”, but that current packaging legislation is “vague and poorly enforced allowing supermarkets to continue over-packaging products, passing the burden of recycling and waste on to consumers and local authorities”.

Professor Tim Lang, Commissioner at the Sustainable Development Commission, said: “There are many areas where the government and retailers are already working together, but government needs to be more ambitious. With public scrutiny of retailers' behaviour increasing, many supermarkets are keen to work with government to develop a green, healthy and fair food system. In fact, our research with supermarkets has shown that in areas such as climate change or recycling policy, they are often frustrated by the lack of clarity or long-term strategy on which they can plan for the future.”

The Commission report hit out at “buy one, get one free” supermarket offers for encouraging shoppers to generate food waste, suggesting that retailers directly generate 1.6 million tonnes of food waste a year.

It said retailers surveyed were focusing more on encouraging recycling, but not enough on reducing packaging waste.

Confusion

While the Commission's guns were firmly trained on packaging producers and retailers, the report did point to a lack of consistency among local authority collections.

It said retailers it had spoken to had complained of the “array of different recycling models” used by councils across the UK and the “confusion and patchy collection of compostable waste”.

The Commission agreed, saying that Defra should work with local authorities and devolved administrations “to improve consistency of recycling and composting schemes across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”