Waste packaging in the UK; perceptions and reality

Brit Peacock discusses the perceptions and reality of waste packaging in the UK.

 

It’s easy to overlook the vital role of packaging; without it we would have to lead our lives very differently.

 

With more people than ever living in an urban rather than a rural environment, products are often manufactured far away from where consumers eventually purchase them. Packaging therefore plays a crucial role in ensuring the survival of transported goods, giving us a freedom of choice that many take for granted.

 

Packaging plays a particularly important role in the transportation and storage of food. It allows us to consume transported fruits and vegetables out of season – and to store them for much longer than would otherwise be possible. Less food is also wasted because of packaging. To cite just one example, it’s estimated that in-store wastage of grapes is reduced by 20 percent when they are packaged in trays or bags rather than lying loose.

 

Despite its importance, packaging gets a rather bad press. We tend to think that businesses should be doing much more to reduce the amount of packaging produced, and consumers should be doing much more to reduce the amount used. Many feel that both producers and consumers should be doing much more to recycle waste packaging.

 

Waste packaging stats

 

The facts may surprise. According to a 2008 report published by the Advisory Committee on Packaging, an independent expert committee that meets four times a year to advise the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), packaging makes up less than three percent of all solid waste sent to landfill.

 

Moreover, 60 percent of packaging is recovered and recycled annually, and businesses spent £1.5 billion in the 10 years prior to 2008 – doubling the amount of packaging recovered and recycled, from three million tonnes to six million tonnes.

 

In addition, the amount of energy needed to produce the packaging used by an average British household is actually very small. The total weight of a household’s annual purchase of products is estimated to be nearly three tonnes – the production of which requires 110 gigajoules of energy.

 

The packaging required to safely transport three tonnes of products, however, is less than 200kg – which takes a mere seven gigajoules of energy to produce.

 

Financial incentive

 

Whilst some consumers may be under the impression that manufacturers produce greatly excessive amounts of packaging, there’s actually a big financial incentive to reduce the amount they use. Excess packaging is a cost to industry, impacting on a manufacturer’s bottom line.

 

As well as the cost of the energy required, there are strong UK and European laws in place to encourage the minimization of packaging. The 1994 European Union Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste requires such minimization. The directive also stipulates that packaging must not contain any hazardous materials which affect recovery, and sets steadily increasing targets for the amount to be recovered and recycled. Financial penalties are imposed when the laws are ignored.

 

This of course does not mean we should be blasé about waste packaging, and imagine the issue to be of no concern. Living on a planet with finite resources we must all do more to conserve energy, and recycling waste materials can help us to do so. This also shrinks our carbon footprint, reducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases.

 

We do however need to be smart about our recycling. Without proper thought there’s a danger recycling could cause greater energy consumption, rather than less.

 

For example, making regular dedicated trips to a recycling point to dispose of waste packaging may seem like an environmentally positive thing to do – but if it’s the only reason you’re taking the car out, the petrol used could actually outweigh anything saved by recycling. Be sure to combine recycling trips with other car journeys you’re making – stop off on the way to your weekly shop, for example.

 

Make proper use of the recycling collection facilities provided by your local authority as well, which generally offer kerbside collection of waste materials. This is an energy efficient way of disposing of waste packaging.

 

About the author: Brit Peacock has a keen interest in environmental affairs, and is writing on recycling issues on behalf of eco-packaging manufacturer Rajapack.