Reducing packaging and using recycled and recyclable materials can cut costs, reduce natural resource depletion, ease pressures on landfill and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The Courtauld Commitment between industry and the government-backed waste group WRAP last year stopped further growth in packaging and aims for absolute reductions by 2010. Yet businesses seeking to reduce packaging face an overwhelming array of choices and may question whether, even if they succeed, their actions will be enough. How much packaging is wasted before products reach consumers? Could closed-loop recycling facilitate green packaging forever? How important to consumers are wider factors such as the visual impact of packaging waste, ethical objections to wastefulness and unease with the industrialisation of food?
The May 2009 meeting of the Food Ethics Council's (FEC) Business Forum discussed such issues and a full report of the meeting is now available online.
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