MP uses Bill to lobby government on packaging reduction

She would also like the Courtauld voluntary agreements to be translated into binding targets and a national organisation to be put in place to enforce them.

Swinson's bill would also boost powers for trading standards officers, allow consumers to leave packaging in supermarkets for disposal and introduce a deposit scheme for carrier bags.

Commenting on the bill, Swinson acknowledged that some packaging is essential and "protects the products we buy, provides information to the consumer and acts as a marketing tool to boost sales".

However, she said we have to ask how much of it is necessary, and how much is "wasteful, needless and excessive".

Swinson said the government had taken some steps to tackle excess packaging. For example, the Waste and Resources Action Programme has taken positive steps on research into minimising packaging and EU regulations on producer responsibility, and the essential requirements of packaging have been adopted into UK law.

However, she added that these attempts had been "too timid and too slow" and urged the government to "sit up and take notice that the packaging problem will continue to get worse unless they take strong, effective action".

Environment Minister Joan Ruddock acknowledged that the Courtauld commitments had been a good start, but said she was now "pushing the supermarkets to go further".

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