Sunday Times backs packaging role in supply chain
Simeon Goldstein, packagingnews.co.uk, 06 July 2009
Packaging has received a boost in the fight against negative public opinion in a supportive article in yesterday’s Sunday Times.
A Magazine article ’Eat me...And save the planet’ highlighted the UK’s "disastrous" recycling system and the "madness of the Local Government Association wanting retailers to pay for the disposal of ’waste’ food packaging while councils ignored their own responsibility to collect and recycle it".
Author Richard Girling said the way to reduce waste was to tackle the right areas, such as encouraging consumers to throw less food away and invest in recycling facilities. He criticised government and retailers for looking at "cheap and easy options" such as trying to reduce carrier bag use.
"Led astray by the philosophical corner-cutting of popular opinion-formers, people didn’t understand that seemingly ’excessive’ shelf-packaging allowed manufacturers to cut back on transit packaging and so make overall savings," he said.
"Neither, in their urge to be angry, did they take account of improvements in hygiene, bulk handling and storage, extended shelf life and reduced food waste," he said.
