BARCODING LABELLING & PACKAGING
A GLIMPSE INTO THE ECO-FRIENDLY SHOPPING BASKET OF THE FUTURE
Are the supermarkets caught up pursuing a circular economy, or have they missed the change? D
espite being resource-efficient, plastic packaging has a global record of leaking into the environment. Yet, most fruits and vegetables are still packaged in this manner in supermarkets. It has become extremely challenging for customers to avoid plastic because takeaway containers, bags, bottles, and packaging for whole meals are plastic. The need to act rapidly to decrease the adverse effects that plastic packaging has on our environment is widely understood. But are supermarkets going far enough in trying to stop the tide?
Happy News! With 2.5 million metric tonnes of plastic packaging waste generated in the UK in 2021, supermarkets are concentrating on packaging strategies to modify how plastics are used. Policy solutions are being researched, adopted, and implemented to reduce plastic waste and establish a circular economy for materials.
Many UK retailers have endorsed WRAP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact to promote the growth of a circular economy for plastics. Via the Basket Metric and the Retailers’ Commitment for Nature, the WWF is collaborating with supermarket chains like Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, and Lidl to highlight the effects of all packing materials on the global supply chain.
WHAT IS THE WWF BASKET METRIC?
Several outcomes and measures are outlined in the WWF Basket to help achieve the target
of reducing the environmental impacts of UK baskets by 2030. The cooperation between WWF and the UK supermarkets is based on three core areas. They include promoting sustainable diets among consumers, restoring nature’s role in food production, and reducing food and packaging waste. Each outcome includes retailer progress measures for tracking performance and progress regarding the activities performed and the impacts made. Most progress metrics have a specific objective performance level and timeline and are expressed in absolute terms. In contrast, some progress measures are expressed as percentage changes; compared to a baseline.
The food system’s impact is felt across various environmental challenges and objectives. A large- scale transformation in each of these core sectors is needed to reduce the effects of the typical UK shopper’s basket by half. To examine the packaging issue more widely, WWF’s Basket Metric recognises the need to minimise material usage for all types of packaging while ensuring that the materials used are reusable and recyclable. Switching single-use plastic to another material won’t always lessen the environmental impact. Thus, the commitment should be to use less packaging or only to use it when essential. This will emphasise the need to move to reusable, refillable packaging systems. This larger viewpoint also guarantees that advancing one material won’t have detrimental consequences on other facets of the packaging system.
THE 2030 UK BASKET OUTCOME AND THE RETAILER PROGRESS MEASURE FOR PACKAGING The goal of the Basket Outcome is for all packaging to be recyclable by 2030, at which point retailer performance will be gauged and accounted for by the amount of recyclable packaging they use. These figures are provided voluntarily by the retailers who draw their evaluations on the On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) classification scheme.
To reduce the amount of material used by 40%, retailers must submit reports regarding their own- label and branded packaging by weight and units. They can collaborate with outside organisations to gather, analyse, and report data on their behalf. We at Ecoveritas recognise the importance of this data. We are equipped with various tools and knowledge to assist brands, retailers, and supply chains in effectively collecting, analysing and reporting data on their behalf.
Retailers will disclose data on recycled content, including both branded and own-label packaging, with the end goal being to have all materials sustainably sourced and employ recycled content as much as possible in packaging. Retailers will publish the percentage of their packaging (by material) approved by independent certification schemes for information on responsibly produced materials. To eliminate single-use packaging, retailers should carefully assess the effects of switching from plastics to other materials and consider practices higher up the waste hierarchy, like reduction and reuse. The metrics aren’t exhaustive of all the challenges and implications the collaboration will solve. Still, they represent some of the most important ones significant to the impact area being addressed. The measurements are intended to direct efforts and aid in creating interventions that significantly reduce their negative environmental effects. While retailers may use different strategies and tactics to meet these goals, those who agree to the overarching objective must take concrete action and give information to monitor results.
THE WAY FORWARD
So far, retailers and other firms in the food industry in the UK have overwhelmingly endorsed ambitious industry initiatives, including WRAP’s Courtauld 2030 and Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, the UK Plastic Pact, Champions 12.3, the Consumer Products Forum, and the most recent WWF-Basket Metric to
20 MAY 2023 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
