Supermarkets must do more to reduce packaging

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 23rd Oct 2007

Much of food packaging is excessive

Liberal Democrat MEP for the South East, Sharon Bowles, has today backed calls for British supermarkets to do more to reduce excessive packaging in order to help meet recycling targets.

Speaking following the publication of a Local Government Association study which warns that Britain will miss its recycling targets if big food chains do not cut back on packaging, Sharon Bowles said, "South East residents are working hard to increase their recycling rates, but this is being undermined by needless packaging of certain food products."

Councils across the South East are under increasing pressure to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill so as to avoid potentially heavy fines under EU rules. The LGA study found that an average 5% of the total weight of products bought was made up of packaging, which amounts to hundreds of tonnes of unnecessary waste each year.

Sharon Bowles added, "Countries like Germany have achieved significant reductions in landfill waste over the past decade by working with the food industry and consumers to raise awareness of the environmental impact of packaging. Many supermarkets are now taking action to reduce excessive packaging, but I think that there is scope to do much more.

I'm also in favour of proposals to place recycling bins at supermarket checkouts, so that shoppers can recycle their packaging quickly and conveniently once they have made their purchases."