Speech by Joan Ruddock MP to the IGD 'Packaging Reduction & Optimisation' Conference, London - 31 October 2007
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you.
You spoke about ‘packaging with precision’ and it’s true you find some very interesting information on packaging nowadays.
Printed on the bottom of a Tiramisu dessert tray – do not turn upside down.
On a children’s cough medicine bottle – do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication.
But behind those messages is an important point that you’ve sought to put across. We do need packaging. And we need it for a number of reasons.
Okay sometimes it’s used as a gimmick. Something that catches the eye. But packaging has its uses. Whether it’s to keep something fresh. Or protect it. Or to make something easier to store, move or lift. It does serve a purpose.
But the question is – is all of it necessary? And is it really the minimum amount as required by the Essential Requirements Regulation?
If you look back to the beginning of the last century packaging didn’t really exist. Most people shopped on a daily basis. They didn’t whiz round their local superstore once a week like Lewis Hamilton. Back then most food was sold loose. It was weighed, measured and placed in bags for people to carry home.
But back then of course health and safety laws for food were less stringent. And advertising was less prevalent than it is now.
But there’s no doubt that even those who can’t remember those days feel very strongly that there is too much packaging wrapped around their food and drink, and often quite inexplicably large packages around tiny accessories for appliances.
It’s certainly an issue that has moved up the political agenda. High profile campaigns by the Women’s Institute, the Daily Mail and Independent newspapers have seen to that. If you could see the press cuts I see from all over the country you’d see the obsession the media has with packaging waste
And as an MP and a government minister I’m all too aware of what’s on the minds of my constituents and the public at large. I just have to read the letters in my postbag.
And increasingly, in amongst the questions on climate change, the summer floods and the proposed Marine Bill, I am seeing more and more questions on packaging. Specifically why isn’t Government doing more.
I think many of you in the audience recognise that something needs to be done. That’s why you have worked with us and WRAP on the Courtauld Commitment.
And why this month the Food and Drink Federation launched its Five Fold Environmental Ambition. Which included a commitment to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015.
But despite targets for reduction and recycling, packaging waste has continued to increase and because of this it is very hard to get any recognition of where progress has been made. Now I am aware – since joining Defra – that a lot is happening.
Just take WRAP’s “GlassRite” project. The traditional brewer Adnams have recently introduced a 500 mililitre beer bottle that is a third lighter than its predecessor.
Similarly in plastics where I’m told, for example, a yogurt pot that weighed 6.5 grams in 1980 now weighs 3.5 grams.
One really innovative WRAP project has been looking at the environmental impacts of wine packaging. Carting bottles of wine all over the world is clearly expensive and uses lots of fuel. WRAP has started to create a market for wine imported in bulk and then bottled in Britain, with obvious cost and environmental benefits. Furthermore, bottling at home has created a market for recycled green glass, with an extra 20,000 tonnes of lightweighted glass bottles being produced in the UK. Although there are some issues around winning consumers over, the latest indications suggest the number of bottles filled with bulk wine increased by over 50% in the first six months of this year.
Despite this good work. And the fact that packaging recycling rates have nearly doubled since 1997. I think many of you in the audience here today have been cast as the bad guys.
So what can you do? Perhaps you need to work closer with your stakeholders and highlight the work you are doing. You need to work closer with local authorities to increase household or community collections and discuss how they can improve the quality of material collected for recycling.
I think projects like rPET point the way. Coca-Cola, M&S and Boots have all taken part in trials recently to demonstrate the potential to use recycled plastic in new packaging.
Most big retailers now have a “green” policy. I’m always looking for the one with zero tolerance. Marks and Spencer’s Plan A might be it. If they can make sure none of their clothing or packaging ends up in landfill by 2012 then everyone else ought to be able to do so too!As far as my department is concerned we’ve already set out our stall for the future. Back in May of this year we launched our Waste Strategy 2007. This set out our aim to look to all sectors to decouple waste growth from economic growth. For everyone to place a greater emphasis on stopping waste being created in the first place.
To meet and exceed our Landfill Directive targets. To secure investment in the infrastructure needed to divert waste away from landfill. And get the best environmental benefit from that investment, through increased recycling and energy recovery.
All this will help us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from waste management by at least 9.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year compared to 2006. That’s the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road.
If we are to succeed everyone has to play their part.
We want individuals to reduce and manage their waste. Both at the doorstep and outside the home.
We want businesses to make sure they use more recycled materials and reduce their waste.
We want local authorities to work with their communities to provide convenient collection and recycling services for their area. Whilst at the same time setting in place the infrastructure to divert waste from landfill.
And when we turn specifically to packaging we are looking to you as retailers and manufacturers to build upon the progress you have already made and look to reduce packaging further.
This could be done by optimising the packaging for a particular product class. This will build on WRAP’s “best in class” work. So that, for example, producers could use the lightest weight packaging wherever that option exists.
As you’ll probably know, on 11 October we published proposals to impose higher statutory packaging recycling targets for 2008 and beyond. Next year we expect to reach the Packaging Directive targets of 60% recovery and 55% recycling. But even when we get there 5 million tonnes of packaging waste will still be going to landfill.
We also want to support the development of a joint protocol to ensure that local government and industry identify the most cost effective way to collect packaging waste.
And we want to extend WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment to retailers in other sectors to increase the total commitment to reduce packaging waste.
This will contribute to our aim of delivering absolute reductions in packaging waste by March 2010.
Signatories to the Commitment have already agreed to design out packaging waste growth by 2008. At the moment I think it is fair to say the design of many products and their packaging still doesn’t place enough emphasis on reducing waste. Or on designing out landfill as an option when it comes to disposal.
If we meet the objectives of the Courtauld Commitment we will secure an annual 80,000 tonne reduction in packaging waste and an accumulated 340,000 tonne reduction by 2010. I am looking forward to learning, I believe WRAP is hosting a meeting in the next few weeks, how close we are to achieving these objectives.
This is excellent news but real progress requires further steps. The Courtauld Commitment has so far focused on the “grocery sector”, but I would urge all those involved in other sectors, such as DIY, electronics and furniture to set themselves objectives similar to those contained in the Courtauld Commitment. This means halting packaging growth and working for real reductions
So these are our aims. The decisions taken by you in the future will help us achieve these goals. Be sure that they are the right decisions. We know the problems. We know the solutions. I know you were invited to watch the fascinating graphics that accompanied my speech – sorry they weren’t there (!), but you are the experts, and experts will be speaking here today. It is up to you.
Thank you
Page published:
31 October 2007