Environment

Several more major brand owners are poised to sign up to the Courtauld Commitment to reduce packaging, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) revealed yesterday.

The organisation will also launch a campaign later in the year to educate consumers about food waste.

WRAP special advisor Mark Barthel told delegates at a Packaging Innovation seminar that “15 to 20 of the top food manufacturers” were likely to follow the retailers’ lead and become involved in the second phase of Courtauld.

The commitment, which was launched in 2005, has so far attracted 13 retailers and four brand owners.
Barthel said brand owners were now “more enthusiastic than the retailers about it”.

Furthermore, he said it was encouraging to see greater collaboration between brands and retailers, which had led to an increasing willingness to experiment with packaging design.

Barthel added that the general public required more detailed information about packaging, particularly on disposal and recycling.

“Consumers don’t fully understand what they should be doing with packaging once they’ve finished with it, but it is clearly a topic they are interested in engaging with, as has been seen, for example, by more and more people leaving packaging at check-outs.”

Consistency in food labelling was particularly important, he added, not just so consumers were able to deal with the packaging, but also as part of the larger issue of food waste.

“Part of the reason why we waste a third of all food purchased in the UK is down to consumer behaviour,” said Barthel.

“We will be launching a campaign later in the year to help educate the public, but it is important that packaging looks at it too, especially given that grocery products represent 70% of the packaging market.”