Ceepackaging

Environment

Very little increase in packaging use in the UK in the past ten years

The European Commission has just published the EU’s official packaging and recycling statistics for 2007.

These show that the UK’s performance over the previous 10 years compares very favourably with that of the EU as a whole (based on the 15 member countries in the EU before enlargement in 2004).

Packaging quantities were stable, recycling rates doubled, landfill greatly reduced. By contrast, Germany’s falling recycling rates suggest that setting very high recycling targets is not sustainable.

And over a period when the UK population increased by 3%, and the favourable economic climate meant that consumers bought more goods, the amount of packaging used in the UK increased by just 4%. The amount of packaging used in EU-15 as a whole increased by 17%.

The UK’s recycling rate more than doubled from 28% to 62%.

“These figures show clearly that the efforts of manufacturers and retailers to reduce packaging over the last decade have worked”, says INCPEN Director, Jane Bickerstaffe.

She adds, “They show that our Packaging Regulations have delivered an impressive recycling rate that is now above the average for the EU-15. It’s also thanks to local authorities increasing their collection schemes for all recyclates and to householders for supporting their local schemes.”