Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Dairy Crest and Sainsburys have been awarded over 400,000 to redesign packaging to reduce its weight. The funding comes from the Waste and Resources Action Programme's 8 million Waste Minimisation Innovation Fund.
” We're delighted to be supporting such a wide variety of projects with major retail brands on the problem of packaging and food waste “
– Mike Robey, WRAP
Coca-Cola has been given 145,000 to run trials of a lighter weight 500ml PET bottle for its carbonated drinks.
Procter & Gamble has been awarded 229,125 to trial six plastic containers re-designed by a computer modelling system for household liquid products including Ariel, Lenor, Flash and Bold.
Dairy Crest and Sainsbury's have been given an initial 40,300 to assess and identify suitable packaging for a full trial to reduce the weight of milk packaging.
Momentum
Mike Robey, WRAP's Innovation Fund manager, said: “This latest group of approved projects highlight the strong momentum which is building around the Innovation Fund. We're delighted to be supporting such a wide variety of projects with major retail brands on the problem of packaging and food waste.”
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More money is available under the Innovation Fund, with applications for new projects open until the end of this month (March 2006).
So far, 4.2 million has been handed out from the Fund for 28 projects, with WRAP attracting some criticism for using public money to finance packaging improvements on behalf of large companies (see letsrecycle.com story).
WRAP believes its Innovation Fund can speed up the process of producers improving the environmental credentials of their packaging.
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