New plans to cut food and packaging waste

Phase Two of the Courtauld Commitment will see signatories agree to make cuts to food and packaging waste that could save £1 billion and cut carbon emissions by three million tonnes.

The industry will make renewed efforts to help householders waste less of the food they buy, reduce the environmental impact of packaging, and for the first time, address the waste from manufacture and supply.

Courtauld II runs from April 2010 to December 2012 and will reduce the carbon impact of grocery packaging by 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, reducing the weight, increasing the recycling rates, and increasing the recycled content of grocery packaging.

Also, help consumers reduce the amount of food they waste by 330,000t, saving £800 million and over one million tonnes of carbon emissions in the process and cut food and packaging waste throughout the supply chain, saving around 0.7million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Signatories to Courtauld II include Britvic, HJ Heinz, Sainsburys, Tesco and Weetabix.

Phase I of the Courtauld Commitment successfully ran from July 2005 to March 2010 and 42 signatories succeeded in completely halting packaging growth.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: "A fifth of household waste is packaging, and more than half of this comes from the groceries we buy.  This packaging can be essential but in many cases using less and smarter packaging can achieve the same result."

"Grocery manufacturers and retailers have already started to take action and have halted the increase in packaging.  The new Commitment sees them go further than ever in reducing food waste and packaging, and making it smarter."

Further information:
Courtauld II