LGA waste research was highly suspicious
2008-11-28
A British research---War on Waste---conducted by the Local Government Association (LGA) has been seriously punched by packaging industries and retailers.
The study done by the British Market Research Bureau on 29 specific food items suggested manufacturers to transform bread plastic packaging into paper wrapping. That will hopefully cut down on the amount of waste and add more recycling.
“However, paper packaging will not be supposed to preserve the food as well as it used to be. Instead, that will lead to more food dumping”, said Jane Bickerstaffe, director of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (Incpen). Jane went further on “throwing away loafs of bread is worse than discarding a slender plastic bag because coming up with packaging requires more than 10 times”
"Throwing away half a loaf is much more wasteful than throwing away a thin plastic bag because 10 times more energy and materials are used to make products than are used to make the packaging that protects them," she said.
The LGA report also criticized the lack of recyclable packaging for meat and fresh fish, but Asda packaging buyer Shane Monkman defended packaging that "extends the life of butchered meat so therefore also reduces food waste".
The survey compared fresh milk in UHT bottles with long-life milk in cartons, and pizzas in supermarkets with fast-food restaurants.
Packaging Federation chief executive Dick Searle said the report was "full of inconsistencies" and "utterly counter-productive" to genuine attempts to improve packaging recycling.
The LGA survey looked at packaging weight and how much of that was recyclable. The lowest weight and highest rate of recycling were found in the local market.
Of the multiples, Asda came out on top as its packaging weighed 646g, of which 69% was recyclable. Lidl and Marks & Spencer had the heaviest packaging and lowest recyclability.
M&S head of packaging Helene Roberts said: "We are really disappointed by the report, which does not reflect reality." An audit by Ernst and Young showed 91% of M&S packaging by weight to be recyclable, she said.
Overall recyclability rates have, however, risen by two percentage points to 62% since the LGA's previous survey in October.
The LGA wants retailers and producers to contribute more money to packaging waste collection and recycling, although recognized that "some packaging is often needed", particularly to prevent food waste.
However, the British Retail Consortium said local authorities should focus more on developing infrastructure and standardizing the materials they accepted, rather than "tapping retailers and customers for extra cash".
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