The Waste & Resources Action Programme will provide £490,000 to help support design, prototyping, piloting and trials.
Argos will develop and trial a reusable packaging system for "a leading product category" which it says could cut household waste across the UK retail sector by 11,270 tonnes/year, while Asda, Yorkshire Fresh Salads and Eco3 will investigate downgauging an existing packaging material, potentially reducing waste by 2,940 tonnes.
The third award will support the redesign and promotion of packaging for one of the Co-operative Group's own brand retail products. Pira International has secured support to apply virtual modelling techniques developed by Altair Engineering to optimise material usage in rigid plastic packaging, while London-based industrial design consultancy Sprout Design is to develop a waste-saving ready meal pack for Tesco.
These five schemes could cut household packaging waste by over 56,000 tonnes/year in total.
