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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 16 May 2012
There’s been some great coverage over the past few days of the opening of new rigid plastics recycling plant in Lincolnshire.
ECO Plastics badges itself as Europe’s leading ethical plastic bottle recycler and its newly-opened plant, an extension of an existing facility - will more than double the capacity for food grade plastics recycling in the UK.
I’m more than a little proud to note...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 3 May 2012
It was great to hear news of the letsrecycle.com annual awards this week. Representatives from business, local authorities and other organisations all converged on a central London hotel to discover who the judging panel viewed as leading the way in no less than 10 different waste and recycling related categories.
It was clear from the calibre of the finalists – ranging from an...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 12 Apr 2012
If you like chocolate, then you’re never too old to enjoy an Easter egg. I’m no exception, and I was happy to indulge in the Easter gift my husband gave me over the weekend.
Understandably, amidst the pleasure, I was mindful of the packaging and ensured that as far as possible, the different (inedible!) components were sent for recycling. Undoubtedly, chocolate manufacturers have been...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 28 Mar 2012
It’s inevitable, given my role here at WRAP, that my friends and relations are going to ask me for advice on all things ‘recycling and reuse’. I’ll always do my best to oblige, of course, and most of the time I can at least point them in the right direction, even if I don’t know the answer myself.
One of the questions I’ve been asked on more than one occasion relates to food and freezers - ...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 28 Mar 2012
Last week, I was delighted to welcome Lord Taylor to our offices in Banbury for a fact-finding visit.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in September last year, so it was encouraging that he was able to make the time to see us so soon after taking up the role.
He took the opportunity to...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 24 Feb 2012
There’s been a fair amount of coverage of late regarding waste incineration plants, biogas and the whole energy from waste (EfW) debate.
Without getting into the local planning rights and wrongs, I think it’s worth saying that if we, as a UK plc, are serious about achieving a zero waste economy and meet renewable energy targets, then EfW has a critical contribution to make.
Waste prevention, re-...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 24 Jan 2012
The issue of food waste continues to stimulate discussion and debate, and not just here in the UK.
Only yesterday, there was wide coverage of the EU’s desire to halve food waste by member states by 2025 (the EU estimates that around 89 million tonnes of food is wasted each year).
Of course, this topic is close to WRAP’s heart and just three months ago, we were able to release our latest research...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 12 Jan 2012
There are, I’m told, at the time of writing, just 198 days left and counting until the start of the much-heralded London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
It seems like only yesterday that the organising committee was celebrating being awarded the Games. I remember I was in London that day, close to Trafalgar Square, so went to hear the result being announced. Today, huge progress has...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 20 Dec 2011
In the run-up to Christmas, I’m even more conscious of the amount of waste our family has the potential to produce – from wrapping paper and envelopes, to gift packaging and food left-overs.
We try to keep all our recycling separate (and encourage our guests to do likewise!) and I know our recycling bin will be very full by the time Christmas is over. Most local authorities operate a ‘...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 5 Dec 2011
Who would have thought, back in early 2005 when WRAP first sat down in one of the meeting rooms at the Courtauld Gallery, with representatives from the world of food and drink, that today, we’d be examining the achievements not of the agreement hammered out then, but of its successor.
We launched the successor to that agreement, Courtauld Commitment 2 (CC2), in March 2010, moving away from the...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 21 Nov 2011
It was great to see so much coverage in the print and on-line media of our annual conference.
It seemed to stimulate plenty of debate, not only around the issue of reducing the amount of household food waste but also of how we can all make the most of opportunities of reuse. It was interesting to read people’s views. Not everyone was persuaded that throwing away food that’s perfectly...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 15 Nov 2011
Today’s an exciting day for us here at WRAP. This is because it’s the day of our annual conference, which I admit, probably doesn’t sound that exciting.
But on this occasion, it really is. Not only are we unveiling the results of our three-year business plan which show we beat all our headline targets, but we’re also releasing ground-breaking research into the benefits of reuse. And perhaps the...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 2 Nov 2011
Earlier this week, Caroline Spelman, the Secretary of State for the Environment, unveiled plans for a new free-to-use website to enable people to opt out of receiving all types of unwanted advertising mail.
The new one-stop-shop approach will replace the current system, where households have to register on no less than three separate websites or apply by post, to stop different types of unwanted...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 24 Oct 2011
With the weather on the turn, and the clocks about to change, even the hardiest amongst us may be thinking about switching on the central heating (I have to confess I have already succumbed) and swapping to the winter high-tog duvet.
At the same time, the idea of a cold salad for lunch or supper begins to sound less than enticing, and hot food becomes much more the order of the day.
Here at WRAP...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 17 Oct 2011
Anyone who works for WRAP will tell you there’s never a shortage of work – there’s always something that needs doing and there’s never time to watch the clock and wonder why time is moving so slowly.
On the contrary, it more often seems to be a case of suddenly looking at your watch and being shocked to discover you should have gone home half an hour ago.
It’s true that every week is a busy...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 10 Oct 2011
Resource efficiency is one of those phrases we’re beginning to hear with increasing frequency around WRAP and beyond.
There are government and EU roadmaps, conferences, websites and all sorts dedicated to the theme. If you search on the phrase in Google, you’re presented with well over 2,000 items to trawl through.
It’s clearly a subject that is becoming increasingly visible, and I believe one...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 3 Oct 2011
Over the weekend, I spotted an abandoned washing machine by the roadside.
I’m not sure whether it was awaiting collection by the council, or if a householder had just dumped it there, and I was reminded how things have changed. In my parents’ day, if you owned goods like washing machines, cookers, fridges, radios and so on, you tended to hold onto them for years and years, only...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 26 Sep 2011
We spend a lot of time here at WRAP working with all kinds of companies, local authorities, charities, community groups and individuals, helping them look at the things they can do to waste less and save money.
If you’re a regular follower of WRAP, you’ll know too that we like to share the progress that’s been made by industry groups. Of course, it’s encouraging if we’re able to show that a...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 19 Sep 2011
It was interesting to observe last week’s media coverage of Defra’s announcement on changes to food packaging date labels.
WRAP’s view is that anything that can be done to help make food labelling information clearer for consumers is a step in the right direction, and most of the coverage seems to agree, at least in part, with that opinion.
More than one journalist made the point that it was...
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By: Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP Posted: 12 Sep 2011
It’s all too easy to cook too much food – as the cook, you don’t know how hungry people are going to be and you tend to err on the side of caution and over-cater.
WRAP has done a lot of research into the food we waste, so I was interested to learn about a new survey, commissioned by Unilever, into the topic of food waste in the hospitality sector.
According to the OnePoll research, two-thirds of...
