In a response to the SU's interim discussion paper released last week (see letsrecycle.com story), Mr Dent said that was it not for the efficiency of modern packaging, a lot more food waste would occur in the food supply chain, and that the lion's share of responsibility for waste rested with consumers and food outlets.
“I urge you to consult the recent OECD studies on sustainable consumption patterns,” Mr Dent wrote, “one of which demonstrated that whilst packaging reduced food loss considerably in the processing stage in the USA, 27% of edible food was subsequently wasted after purchase mainly by service outlets and consumers.”
In his letter to the Strategy Unit, the Packaging Federation head quoted a figure from the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment that “a third of household waste could be composted”, and pushed for the Strategy Unit to place “appropriate emphasis” on composting and aerobic or anaerobic digestion systems in their forthcoming report.
Landfilling
Mr Dent's response came a week before the final deadline for consultation data to be provided to the Strategy Unit by interested parties before the Unit produces its report on how the UK should meet the European Landfill Directive. In his statement, Mr Dent defended the importance of landfilling in UK waste management, and cast doubt on the benefit of bio-degradable packaging to the environment.
“It is ironic that packaging, especially plastics, are castigated for lasting a long time in landfills when in reality you need a stable base which will not emit gases and liquids or create subsistence,” he said.
“The concept of degradable packaging often suffers from confusion between composting and landfilling with the belief that degradable packaging is better for landfills, when the opposite is true as efficient landfills remove the necessary ingredients for degradation of air, water and/or micro-organisms.”
Mr Dent also attacked DEFRA's allocation of the 140 million National Waste and Minimisation Fund for providing too much money for local waste awareness campaigns.
He said: “Much better to have pooled that money into the infrastructure itself and put the 'horse before the cart'. Many waste minimisation campaigns talk about using “less packaging” without extolling the consumer to buy less products – horse and cart principle again.”
Click here for the Packaging Federation website.
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