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Store Owners Urged to Cut Down Packaging Waste

During Christmas, British buyers discard 227,000 miles of wrapping paper

Dec 19, 2011 14:38 GMT  ·  By
Britain ranks first in a list of European countries when it comes to its amount of packaging waste
   Britain ranks first in a list of European countries when it comes to its amount of packaging waste

Winter holidays generate tons of waste every single year. Excessive packaging plays an important part in this equation; therefore Government Minister Grant Shapps has urged supermarket owners to start finding and implementing effective ways of reducing the amount of packaging waste.

It seems that the situation is quite serious, since a governmental report indicates 227,000 miles of wrapping paper are produced and discarded every year, during Christmas only, to satisfy our shopping needs, Daily Mail informs.

This appears to be enough to go round the world nine times.Shapps is also encouraging customers to indicate the situations in which stores use an excessive amount of paper for no particular reason.

Extra measures are required, since Britain ranks first in the list of wasteful European countries. Even though the financial recession should inspire shops to help clients save a considerable amount of money, things work the other way around.

Many British supermarkets use plastic wrapping to commercialize fruits and veggies and force buyers to pay more for something they discard in a matter of seconds.

If the owners of stores refuse to comply with the measure drawn up by Shapps and no signs of progress are visible within the next 12 months, the UK government could implement new legal regulations aiming to cut down the unnecessary wrapping and fine the stores that disobey the legal framework.

The UK government is counting on the population's support, since less packaging waste translates into less money thrown out the window.

“I want every supermarket to commit to culling packaging by this time next year. Consumers have a big interest in putting pressure on the supermarkets to reduce their packaging, since it will help reduce their tax bills,” notes Shapps.

Some of the companies have already taken the warning seriously, since statistics show grocery packaging has been reduced by 220,000 tonnes in 2010. At the same time, the recycling rate for packaging material reached 60%, revealing that British companies have started greening up their conduct.