Excess food packaging is hard to recycleWhich? members say there's too much packaging
25 June 2009
There are few facilities for recycling plastic packaging
Many Which? members are worried by the amount of packaging on food and find some of it hard to recycle.
In our latest research, 94% of members said there was too much food packaging and nearly all felt that manufacturers and supermarkets should do more to reduce it.
In fact, nearly one in three have even refused to buy an item simply because of the amount of packaging on it.
If you want to reduce the amount of packaging you use, see our guide to excess packaging and, for further advice on simple changes you can make to be greener, see our video advice guide to green changes.
Plastic packaging
It isn’t just the amount of packaging that's the issue. There's also the question of whether packaging contains recycled content and whether you can actually recycle it in practice.
Our survey shows that most of you find it easy to recycle paper, cans, glass and plastic bottles.
However, other types of plastic packaging remain a challenge.
In our survey, half of you told us that you find it difficult or impossible to recycle it.
To get a snapshot of how much plastic packaging is commonly recyclable and how much supermarkets are using, we bought the same basket of 27 everyday items that commonly come in plastic, including pasta, milk and bread, from six supermarkets.
For more tips on recycling see our video guide to recycling.
Can you easily recycle plastic?
It isn’t surprising that so many of you find it difficult to recycle plastic packaging. Out of our shopping basket, only the plastic bottles could be widely recycled in kerbside collections – about 40% of the 27 items.
Some councils do collect other plastic types – about 7% collect plastic tubs and trays from homes, according to a report published in 2008. But that still leaves a lot of packaging.
However, North Kesteven Council in Lincolnshire (one of the best councils in the country for recycling) said that the vast majority of our shopping basket could potentially be recycled from its kerbside collections.
Marks and Spencer said 88% of the basket we bought from it could potentially be recycled.
We asked Paul Bettison, chairman of the environmental board at the Local Government Association to explain why there were differences between what different councils collect to be recycled.
He said it’s not practical to recycle everything in all areas.
He added: ‘Recycling facilities vary in different areas and councils have to work out if it’s economical or environmentally friendly to transport waste halfway across the country.’
For more information about rubbish see out guide about what happens to your rubbish.
Quantities of plastic packaging
The 27 items from each supermarket were packaged in an average of 636g of plastic or carton. That may not sound much, but it builds up.
The average bacon packet was nearly 15g and we eat about 50m packets of bacon a year. That’s 7,500 tonnes of packets - the equivalent of 50 blue whales.
14 of the 27 items had the same weight or volume of product - so they could be compared. Their packaging averaged 392g of plastic and carton across the supermarkets.
The most plastic and carton used by a supermarket for the 14 items was 415g, while the least was 369g.
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