Packaging Must Not Distract From Food Waste Issues

In a recent discussion with Dick Searle, chief executive of the Packaging Federation, regarding the positive role packaging plays in society; he reminded me about some of the key findings of the WRAP report “UK progress against Courtauld 2025 targets and Sustainable Development Goal 12.3” published in January 2020*.

Although the report is primarily concerned with the nation’s progress in reducing UK food waste and greenhouse gas emissions associated with food consumed, in doing so, it highlights some very interesting facts, not least the relative contribution of the various elements of the food supply chain to the UK’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

That percentage contribution per stage in the value chain is reproduced here as a pie chart and shows that by far the biggest contribution to GHG is from food production and food manufacture itself, 68 per cent in fact and that the total GHG contribution from packaging is, by comparison, a mere three per cent.

Putting this into context, packaging has over 22.5 times less impact on the UK’s food supply chain GHG emission than the food it protects.

This, to me, calls into question the preoccupation some have with the carbon footprint of packaging.

How…