UK grocery retailers and manufacturers are three quarters of the way to reaching household food waste objectives, and half way to achieving packaging reduction targets, as set out in phase two of the Courtauld Commitment which runs between March 2010 and December 2012.
The Courtauld Commitment is a voluntary agreement which began in 2005 and supports businesses to improve overall performance and reduce environmental impact. It began in 2005, is funded by UK government, and is run by waste prevention advisory body WRAP.
WRAP has praised the grocery supply chain for diverting waste from landfill, with a 40 per cent reduction over the reporting period. Significant volumes of waste now go to renewable energy production using Anaerobic Digestion.
Lord Taylor, Defra minister for environment, said: “These results show excellent progress towards cutting down on food and packaging waste that are part of our ambition to move to a zero waste economy. However, there is no room for complacency and it’s clear that more work needs to be done in meeting our new target for reducing waste in the supply chain. I will be pushing for industry to build on their efforts to make sure we meet these goals over the next two years.”
