The Local Government Association says “new research reveals scale of packaging waste problem”. But it also says packaging waste is going down, not up – stating that packaging has decreased by five per cent in the last year alone.
While the LGA recommends using paper bags, instead of plastics, to wrap bread, Jane Bickerstaffe, director of INCPEN - the Industry Council for Packaging & the Environment, responds: “Paper bags have their uses but they will not keep bread fresh, only plastics can do that. Throwing away half a loaf is much more wasteful than throwing away a thin plastics bag because 10 times more energy and materials are used to make products than are used to make the packaging that protects them.”
She also points out that while the LGA complains that 30 per cent of packaging cannot be recycled, that means 70 per cent of it can be.
“However, the LGA’s measure of recyclability is meaningless,” she continues. “It takes no account of how clean the packaging is. Recycling is worth doing when it yields a net environmental gain but it doesn’t make environmental sense to consume more energy, materials and water to transport and clean small amounts of food-contaminated material.”
“Recyclability is only one part of a product’s environmental footprint. Product wastage and energy use are much more important. If the product that’s inside the packaging is wasted, that’s the environmental disaster.”
According to INCPEN, packaging companies and retailers are ahead of most others in reducing their environmental footprint, not only by reducing packaging but also by recycling more. Last year, industry paid over £50M to support recycling - £35M of which funded recycling household packaging.
