News

Packaging chiefs have criticised the long-awaited Waste Strategy for England for focusing too much on packaging compared with other sectors, and say it lacks concrete plans to deal with waste.

Jane Bickerstaffe, director of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (Incpen), said packaging was “once again being used as a scapegoat”, and that the strategy “shows the need for the industry to shout out about the good things it does.”

The strategy outlines plans for the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) to extend the Courtauld Commitment to non-food retailers and develop optimum standards for packaging.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the emphasis on packaging was partly in response to consumer perceptions of ‘excessive’ packaging.

“Many respondents to our strategy consultation last year wished to see more done to tackle packaging waste,” said a Defra spokesperson.

However, Packaging Federation chief executive Dick Searle said the “obsession” with packaging was “totally unjustified by the numbers”, since packaging from household waste accounts for less than 3% of waste sent to landfill.

Searle said the strategy was “long on rhetoric but short on action” because it failed to adequately address the problems of waste collection and reprocessing.

His concerns were echoed by PaperChain, the Confederation of Paper Industries’ working group on recycled materials.

“Wastes are not recycled until they have been made into new products,” said PaperChain chairman Martin Green. “Paper manufacturers cannot make recycled paper products from plastics, metals or glass.”

---

WASTE STRATEGY KEY POINTS
• Wrap to extend the Courtauld Commitment to non-food retailers
• Wrap, in conjunction with industry, to set “optimum minimum standards” for packaging by 2009 to encourage lightweighting
• Advisory Committee on Packaging and council chief executives to develop joint protocol on recycling from household waste
• 25% reduction in the environmental impact of free carrier bags by 2009
• Defra to establish a new products and materials unit to improve environmental performance of products through their life cycle