Packaging: cutting consumer waste

We are pleased to report that our members now account for more than half of all the signatories to WRAP's Courtauld Commitment, with 23 FDF companies currently backing this important initiative to reduce the amount of packaging reaching households.

FDF signatory companies continue to make good progress towards reducing packaging, product and food waste as shown by the case studies in this report. Action is now focused on ensuring that the core Courtauld Commitment objective of demonstrating a significant absolute reduction in packaging by 2010 is met.

Discussions on a successor agreement to the Courtauld Commitment are now underway. FDF has been engaged in this debate and, alongside our members, has been helping to shape the proposals.

Whilst there will be a continued focus on packaging waste, it is likely that any new agreement will be expanded to include waste along the supply chain. It will also move away from solely weightbased targets to weight and carbon targets and, ultimately, targets to reduce the impact of products based on a range of environmental metrics.

The importance of developing a successor to the Courtauld Commitment is one of a number of measures highlighted in the Government's Packaging Strategy published in June 2009.

FDF and its members are contributing to the implementation of all aspects of this Strategy, such as Defra's current work to develop options for stretching the country's packaging recycling targets from 2011 and efforts to make the existing producer funding of the UK recycling system more transparent.

FDF and its members are also supporting the multistakeholder Packaging Resources Action Group and its various working groups. Recent projects include the completion of a 'plain language' guide to designing packaging for recyclability, which has been produced for designers and packaging specifiers.

Consistent with the need to increase the quantity and quality of packaging collected for on-pack recycling label recycling from households, FDF supported the launch by WRAP and the British Retail Consortium of a new on-pack recycling label scheme which aims to provide consumers with more standardised information on what types of packaging can be recycled. It is pleasing to report that 15 FDF members have already signed up to the scheme. An industry advisory panel has been formed to provide technical support for the scheme and FDF successfully nominated a brand producer representative to join this group.

Over the next few months our immediate priority is to liaise closely with WRAP to help ensure that the objectives of the current Courtauld Commitment are met. We will also continue to shape the post-2010 successor agreement, and its subsequent implementation, to ensure it carries broad support from within the FDF membership.

As part of our efforts to refresh the Five-fold Environmental Ambition, we will explore how best to reflect WRAP's new proposals in our future work. At the same time, we will continue to work with Defra and other stakeholders on the implementation of the Government's Packaging Strategy