Environment
Courtauld Commitment achieves initial waste reduction target
The Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) has announced that it has achieved its initial Courtauld Commitment target to design out packaging waste growth by 2008.
Wrap has reached its goal despite a 2% growth in the grocery sector and population growth of 0.5% per annum since the organisation's inception in 2005.
Environment minister Joan Ruddock said that this was "the first time that we've seen a halt in the growth of packaging waste".
Wrap has worked with retailers and brands on lightweighting and packaging innovation projects to help meet its targets.
Liz Goodwin, Wrap chief executive, said that packaging innovation not only helps to "address the consumers' concerns", but can improve a company's "robustness".
"One of the things about the Courtauld Commitment is that signatories have built their whole objective about packaging into their corporate strategies," she said.
Wrap is now focussing on delivering absolute reductions on packaging waste by 2010 and tackling the issue of food waste through its Love Food, Hate Waste campaign.
It has set retailers the ambitious target of reducing household food waste by 155,000 tonnes by 2010.
Ruddock said that Wrap is "on track" to achieve these targets, and although the reduction in food waste is "challenging, it can be achieved".
Weetabix and Procter & Gamble are the latest companies to join the list of 32 retailers and brands who have signed up to the Courtauld Commitment.
Wrap currently represent 92% of UK supermarkets.
Ruddock and Goodwin: working with retailers to cut packaging waste
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Comments
Pack Man - 29 July 2008
Well done on the achievement. But is all the focus on packaging deserved?
I see several papers back on the plastic bag bandwagon.
Keren McCarron - 30 July 2008
The Food and Drink Federation thinks it's great news that the industry has met the Courtauld target to halt packaging growth, and that we are now on track to cut food and packaging waste by 2010. As part of FDF's Five-fold Environmental Ambition we have been encouraging our members to make a significant contribution to WRAP's work on reducing the level of packaging reaching households, as well as seeking to send zero of our own food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015.
As our recent joint survey with Defra demonstrates, reducing waste is an area that our members are already taking seriously, having prevented over half a million tonnes of food waste being created in 2006 by sending food by-products for uses such as animal feed.
We're delighted that two more of our member companies have decided to sign up to the Courtauld Commitment – Proctor and Gamble and Weetabix - and are encouraging others to do the same as part of our Environmental Ambition. Together with our member signatories FDF looks forward to continuing to work with WRAP both to deliver the 2010 objective as well as on possible options for moving forward beyond this.
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