Give Excess Packaging The Chop
Householders are urged to get 'wrapped up' in packaging and help cut the 64,000 tonnes thrown away in Leicestershire each year. New figures reveal that an average county home throws out around 4.6kg of packaging such as shrink wrap, cardboard sleeves and plastic trays every week - this is equivalent to 575 plastic bags.
Launching today, a new month-long drive is encouraging residents to take practical steps to reduce excessive wrapping including:
- buy loose fruit and vegetables
- buy products that use recycled and recyclable packaging
- choose concentrated products and refill packs such as coffee and fabric conditioner
- buy non-perishables in bulk such as toilet rolls and soap powder
Led by the Leicestershire Waste Partnership - made up of the county and district councils - the campaign features thought-provoking images and captions.
During November, a roadshow is touring the county's supermarkets giving practical advice on reducing packaging and how to reuse and recycle it.
Tony Kershaw, Chairman of the Leicestershire Waste Partnership, said: "Packaging is needed to protect products, particularly food, but excess wrapping is a waste so we're asking residents to think before they buy". A fifth of our waste is packaging – that’s five million tonnes of household packaging waste in the UK every year and most/a lot of this is often sent to landfill as it can be difficult to recycle.
"Leicestershire is already the top county partnership for recycling and composting but we're always keen to do more and I hope shoppers get along to the roadshows."
- Asda, Fosse Park, Friday 5th November, 10am - 2pm
- Morrisons, Melton, Thursday 18th November, 9am - 2pm
- Morrisons, Hinckley, Tuesday 23rd November, 2pm - 6pm
- Morrisons, Lutterworth, Wednesday 24th November, 9am - 3pm
- Morrisons, Coalville, Thursday 25th November, 10am - 2pm
- Asda, Oadby, Friday 26th November, 10am - 2pm
To find out more about reducing packaging, please visit www.lesswaste.org.uk or call 0116 305 7005.
Think Packaging! - posters in PDF file format, (size 2.62 MB)