It’s a wrap

Three projects that could potentially reduce the amount of retail packaging waste that ends up in UK household bins by 41,895 tonnes every year are the latest to have received funding from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) - a UK programme established to promote resource efficiency.

Contracts with a combined value of £324,584 were recently signed by Compak Packaging, Esterform, and the Soil Association, taking the number of projects supported by WRAP to ten, since the Innovation Fund’s launch in November 2004.

The Soil Association has been awarded £186,000 for a year-long project to develop new packaging standards that organic products must meet in order to achieve Soil Association Certification.

Pilot projects will be carried out with Duchy Originals, Green & Black's and Sheepdrove Organic Farm to reduce packaging waste at source and show how minimisation can work in practice.

For its part, Esterform has been awarded £104,500 in WRAP funding to assess how PET bottles can be made lighter, and the impact that this could have on the many millions of PET bottles that are manufactured in the UK.