You are here: Responsible Retailing / Retailers call on local authorities to improve recycling rates
Retailers call on local authorities to improve recycling rates
Archived article dated Tuesday February 17th 2009
The British Retail Consortium is challenging local authorities to make positive moves to encourage recycling, rather than looking for ways to pile new costs onto hard-pressed customers and retailers.
The BRC's call is in reaction to a Local Government Association (LGA) packaging survey, published today (Tuesday). The survey fails to acknowledge the key role packaging plays in preserving food and thereby reducing waste. The BRC said that many local authorities are failing to recycle materials that can be recycled. Bob Gordon, the BRC's Head of Environment, said: “It's a nonsense to suggest that retailers swathe their goods in masses of unnecessary packaging. This would simply be a pointless cost. Packaging reduces waste by protecting and preserving products.“The LGA is right to say the overall weight of food packaging has been reduced. Retailers are working towards more sustainable packaging, using less material and more recycled content. Stores reward and encourage recycling. They also offer a variety recycling facilities where practical.
“Retailers pay over £5 billion a year in business rates towards local authority funding. The biggest barrier to recycling is local authorities' failure to agree on which materials they're prepared to recycle.”
Tagged as: waste | recycling | brc
Share this article:
Should your colleagues be reading the Retail Bulletin?
Let them know about us.
