The European Union Committee of the House of Lords has recently published a report, 'Counting the cost of food waste: EU food waste prevention', which looks at the issue of food waste and what steps can be taken to reduce it.
The report argues that a lack of co-operation between component parts of the supply chain is responsible for much of the food waste in the EU, and urges greater collaboration to reduce this. It also discusses the evidence the committee heard regarding the importance of packaging in preventing food waste, by extending the shelf life of food and protecting the product from damage.
The report states: "We conclude that few consumers are aware that packaging can be crucial for the durability of food", adding "Retailers have a responsibility to communicate the benefits of packaging and information about how food should be stored to avoid premature deterioration and unnecessary food waste."
It notes that the latest Courtauld Commitments contain only a 3% packaging reduction target for food, reflecting concerns about the point at which packaging reduction may become deleterious to food waste prevention.
While it is clear packaging has an important role to play in preventing food waste, and therefore increasing resource efficiency, it is also important that the package itself is resource efficient.
ACE UK's members, Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc, are the leading manufacturers of beverage cartons for the UK market. ACE UK is also supported by BillerudKorsn?s and Stora Enso, which produce around 98% of the paperboard used by its members to manufacture beverage cartons in Europe.
As an industry we seek to improve the resource efficiency of cartons through sustainable sourcing of materials and supporting recycling, so that the value of used packaging materials is recaptured.
Beverage cartons are on average made from 75% paperboard, a renewable material if made from wood fibre sourced from responsibly managed forests. They are inherently lightweight and space efficient making them a low carbon packaging choice which can easily be recycled.
The majority of wood fibre for European beverage cartons comes from responsibly managed forests in Sweden and Finland where, for every tree harvested at maturity, new saplings are planted or grow naturally.
In Sweden for example, 85 million m3 of wood is harvested annually, while the annual growth is around 120 million m3 (2011 figures). In Finland, industrial logging is only around two thirds (71 million m3) of annual growth (104 million m3) (2011 figures).
And of course the 2013 opening of the UK's first purpose-built facility for recycling beverage cartons, a partnership between ACE UK and Sonoco Alcore, means recycling cartons is now even easier.
The plant is capable of recycling up to 40% of the cartons manufactured each year for the UK market. This means that up to 25,000 tonnes or 1.25 billion cartons can now be recycled here in the UK rather than being exported.
As the report makes clear, packaging plays a key role in helping to reduce food waste, but renewable materials and more and better recycling make important contributions to the resource efficiency of the package itself.
Richard Hands is chief cxecutive of the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK
