Grocery insight association IGD has published a new report to help the food and consumer goods industry drive progress towards the shared ambition of halving the environmental impact of the UK packaging system by 2030.
The new report – ‘Halving the environmental impact of the UK packaging system: How industry and key stakeholders can work together to drive positive change’ – focuses on the big challenges facing the industry and highlights opportunities to reduce impact and deliver cost savings.
To achieve the 2030 ambition, business as usual will not be enough, says IGD; there will need to be a 20 per cent reduction in the amount of packaging on the market. The report identifies three key levers to change: remove packaging; increase recycled content; and decarbonise existing supply chains. The ambition will require a shift in focus from plastics to all packaging materials.
Susan Barratt, CEO at IGD, says: “Creating sustainable packaging systems is a critical issue. Last year, we brought together stakeholders to form a working group to create our shared industry ambition. Recent events have thrown the context of this work sharply into focus, with unprecedented challenges around commodity inflation and supply affecting businesses and consumers alike. This has led to a significant reappraisal of packaging strategy and sourcing decisions.
“Our challenge is to find solutions to future packaging systems that can help consumers do their bit for the planet and also keep their costs down. For businesses, the opportunity is to provide them with a framework for investment that minimises costs and enables growth.
“Our stakeholders have been invaluable in challenging our industry to work together as one voice. It will now take industry leaders, technical and commercial teams to refocus their plans to ensure that collectively, we can meet this ambition.”
‘Halving the environmental impact of the UK packaging system’ is a free report for industry and is the next phase of IGD’s sustainable packaging work, following the launch of ‘How To Help Consumers Adopt Reusable Packaging’ last year, which highlighted consumer tools for adopting refill and on-the-go packaging solutions.
