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The UK’s biggest retailers are developing a co-ordinated labelling system detailing the best way to recycle packaging.

The retailers, including major supermarkets, last met on 17 July under the umbrella of a British Retail Consortium (BRC) working group on carbon footprint and labelling, and it is understood that a rollout of the scheme may be possible this year.

A BRC spokesman said the key issue the group was addressing was “what kind of labelling you can put on when local authorities differ in what they recycle”.

The group is also developing a carbon footprint labelling system, but this has been hindered by the difficulty in detailing the exact carbon footprint of packs.

The variety of recycling schemes was also highlighted at a meeting be­­tween Asda’s packaging team and 40 Women’s Institute (WI) members in July to discuss the packaging of fruit and vegetables.

The organisations are now considering teaming up to lobby the government on the need to standardise packaging recycling across the UK.

An Asda spokeswoman said the supermarket hoped to find the best way to recycle packaging and encourage local autho­rities to use that approach. She said the multiple also hoped to combine its lobbying efforts with those of the WI.

The meeting was the first of many planned by the WI to discuss its packaging campaign with supermarkets.
WI public affairs officer Jean Sheppard outlined the WI’s current anti-packaging campaign, which includes an online survey to discover the top 10 products the public consider to be “overpackaged”.

Packaging Federation chief executive Dick Searle, who attended the event, said it was “excellent” and “balanced", and “warmly congratulated” Asda for staging it.