Waste Watch

PLASTICS PACKAGE: unpicking the resources & waste strategy

The government’s new proposals look amazing on paper, however the deadlines are hardly pressing and the concept of reducing consumption is conspicuous only by its absence. By David Burrows. Our energy resources may have been depleted by a hectic year of proposals, press releases and policies on the subject of plastics, but fuelled by cold…

Campaigners welcomed some of the ambition within the strategy, but criticised the timeframes. Mary Creagh, chair of the House of Commons environmental audit committee, also accused the government of “kicking the waste can down the road yet again”. She said: “The plastic bottle deposit return scheme promised in 2018 won’t be ready until 2023. Textile…

More companies to publish food waste data

Nestlé, Unilever, Walmart and Tesco are among big names signed up to ambitious reduction targets. By David Burrows. There has been a flurry of food waste announcements in the past week, which will see more companies come under pressure to not only measure and manage their waste but to publish data on it and be…

Plastics package: coffee pods, strawless lids and a bitter BBIA

This month we will mostly be confused by compostables and perplexed by plastics. By David Burrows. For years there have been calls to ditch weight as a measurement for waste and use carbon instead. An analysis of Scotland’s rubbish showed that the five most carbon-intensive waste materials make up just 6% of waste by weight…

The Plastics Package: cup shocks and Euro rivalries

In Footprint’s latest monthly briefing, Michael Gove’s coffee lands him in hot water while Westminster and Brussels vie to out-green each other. By David Burrows. The World Cup’s under way, so to adapt the famous quote from the former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson: “Plastics, bloody hell.” It’s been another fertile four weeks of…

Plastics Package: company commitments keep coming

Footprint’s new monthly briefing The Plastics Package finds foodservice has been left out of a new packaging pact. By David Burrows. It’s almost impossible to keep up with all the foodservice packaging news, so we’ve made it a little easier for you. Once a month, Footprint will bring you (some of) the latest corporate commitments, political…

DEFRA’s waste strategy: fill in the blanks

Westminster’s plan to tackle plastics is big on promises but short on detail – for now. By David Burrows. The government has hit the food sector with a whirlwind of announcements relevant to the future of waste in the past three months. The Clean Growth Strategy and new Industrial Strategy kicked things off late last…

A Footprint investigation has cast doubt on the integrity of plastic-free straw pledges because compostable replacements are not being composted. Nick Hughes reports. First it was carrier bags, then coffee cups and now straws are the focus of the backlash against plastic packaging. In the past six months, a host of major pub and restaurant…

Plastics regulation: is that a flying pig I see?

Ministers have long been reluctant to act on single-use products in the face of industry resistance – but Philip Hammond’s budget suggests the tide is turning. By David Burrows. It took well over a decade for the Westminster government to be convinced that a levy on plastic bags was a good idea – and in…

UK food waste strategies don’t measure up

Westminster’s plans aren’t good enough to even be included in a major global study, writes Nick Hughes. How do approaches to tackling food waste in the UK compare with other countries? The answer is not very favourably, unless you live in Scotland. In fact, government plans to tackle food waste in England were not even…