Stakeholder briefing

In Scotland and England, WRAP is taking the lead in delivering resource efficiency, taking on the responsibilities of a range of organisations to improve value for money and make things clearer for those seeking guidance and support in this area.

In England, WRAP will be the single point of contact for businesses, local authorities and consumers, providing a wide range of resource efficiency guidance and support. Work previously delivered by Envirowise, National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP), Action Sustainability, the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) Centre for Local Authorities, Centre for Remanufacturing & Reuse (CRR) and Construction Resources & Waste Platform (CRWP), will now come under WRAP’s management, making it quicker and easier for everyone to get the information and support they need while improving efficiencies and value for money. WRAP has increased its web and contact centre offerings to reflect this increased remit. For further information about the changes in delivery visit www.wrap.org.uk/england or contact 0808 100 2040.

In Scotland, as previously reported, WRAP is already leading a project to bring together the work of seven separate programmes under one umbrella, Zero Waste Scotland.

A key advantage of the changes is that they will deliver cost efficiencies. In England, for example, the new structure is expected to save £5.2 million in its first year alone and around £4 million annually after that. But it is not all about saving cash. The new structure will allow WRAP to deliver a more effective service which encompasses the whole life cycle of resource use, from design through to disposal and reuse.  WRAP’s structural changes will also provide the flexibility to react quickly and effectively to changes in policy or budget. 

Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive, explains: “We are going to be able to take a more rounded view of resource efficiency rather than just focusing on our traditional areas of expertise in recycling and waste minimisation. It will make for better choices and judgments because we will not be working in silos.”

WRAP’s new responsibility for fostering eco design is a key part of the new structure. Richard Swannell, Director for Design & Resource Minimisation, explains: “Britain has huge strengths in product design. Given that much of the environmental impact of products is a consequence of their design, there are significant cost and environmental benefits from innovating in this area.”
 
Liz Goodwin agrees: “By thinking about design there are real opportunities both in improving existing and new products and in new, more resource efficient business models in the future. Less will deliver more benefits to business.”

WRAP will also take on responsibility for business water efficiency, something previously handled by Envirowise, and hopes to bring about change in this area through continued activity in industry-wide voluntary agreements, similar to those for waste in the construction sector and packaging in the retail supply chain. Defra has also asked WRAP to assist with developing its thinking on Energy from Waste, a new area for WRAP which will help businesses weigh up all the potential options for their waste disposal.

In certain sectors, including construction, retail and food and drink, WRAP will build on its work with a continuing focus on providing practical information that will help businesses make real change. WRAP will also liaise with Business Link and the Regional Development Agencies, or other key regional partners as appropriate, on a strategic level, to assist in providing the right information and support for individual companies, particularly small and medium sized businesses.

For businesses, WRAP will endeavour to make the change as seamless as possible with the continuing provision of support, advice and guidance. However, ultimately the changes will bring improvement and we look forward to putting our resources to efficient use for you.

Marks & Spencer is a British institution whose customers and investors expect more from it than almost any other high street store.

Leading the way on environmental issues is part of that expectation. The retailer has attempted to live up to those expectations with the 2007 launch of its high profile Plan A programme which embraces ambitious green and ethical goals.

Since then, Marks & Spencer has cut packaging use, slashed plastic bag use and driven down food waste.

What the retailer didn’t expect, however, is that its drive to become greener has made it more efficient, saving £50 million so far after investments. It now expects to spend far less than the £200 million stated for the five-year Plan A programme as savings off-set spending.

Richard Gillies, Director of Plan A says: “We are now seeing significant savings to our bottom line because of resource efficiency. This financial case has been an important way to engage our business, particularly during a recession.”

He adds: “Something that meets environmental and social targets but also delivers for the business spurs everybody on to look at more creative and innovative solutions.”

Some of the biggest wins for Marks & Spencer have come from low or no cost changes to approach. Perhaps the greatest example of this is in packaging. The store has cut packaging use by 12% on food and 15% on general merchandise since 2007, way ahead of its goal under the Courtauld Commitment, the WRAP-backed industry agreement to reduce packaging.

Marks & Spencer’s reductions have come from re-engineering packaging so that, for example, a pair of socks comes with a smaller cardboard band and pizzas are shrink-wrapped rather than presented in a box.

Gillies says: “It’s about reducing layers, the thickness of the material and lightweighting.”

Longer term initiatives mean the retailer is confident of hitting its 2012 target of reducing packaging waste by 25% against a 2007 baseline.

Redesign of packaging has also focused on simplifying the materials used and cutting out laminated and composite packaging so that more of it can be recycled. Recyclability of packaging has risen to 91% on foods and 98% on general merchandise. Gillies says: “This process has made things more recyclable, lighter and cheaper so it’s a win, win, win situation.”

The use of recycled materials, however, demands a certain level of creativity and determination to develop emerging markets into something more sustainable in the longer term.

Gillies said that Marks & Spencer found using recycled polyester in garments slow going and expensive as there were a limited number of suppliers. However, an idea to use the fibre in duvets, cushions and other household goods has upped usage 10-fold. “We hope our moves will start to stimulate the market and encourage other companies to join in by increasing consistency in demand,” Gillies says.

Marks & Spencer is nevertheless forging ahead with plans to extend the use of recycled plastic in milk-bottles and salad bowls to other areas of the business. All the stores’ carrier bags are also made entirely from recycled plastic, most of which uses content from the company’s own garment delivery bags.

This year the company will also be focusing on the most cost effective way of saving resources – reuse. After simplifying its range of clothes hangers, they can now be sorted and put back onto the shop floor rather than ground down for recycling.

Since signing phase 2 of the Courtauld Commitment in March, Marks & Spencer is also planning to further cut packaging and food waste in its supply chain.

Policy changes have already helped reduce waste by allowing stores to sell food at the end of its sell-by date to customers at a discounted rate. But this year will see a dramatic change after Marks & Spencer reorganised its supply chain so that unsold food is back-hauled to its depots in sealed containers. The move allows it to aggregate food waste and pass it on to contractors who send it to be processed into energy via anaerobic digestion or other projects that divert it from landfill. Gillies expects 70 to 80% of Marks & Spencer’s food waste to be diverted from landfill next year as these changes are rolled out to all its depots with an aim of zero waste to landfill by 2012.

It’s a tough target, but one Marks & Spencer’s customers won’t allow it to miss.

The eagerly-anticipated results of a project to support the UK wine sector to reduce its glass waste and carbon emissions have been unveiled. 

GlassRite Wine was commissioned by WRAP to identify opportunities for the sector to make environmental and commercial savings.     

Commencing in 2006 and completing in March 2010, the project has contributed CO₂ savings of almost 35,000 tonnes per year by:

- reducing glass bottle weight by a total 27,048 tonnes per annum through the use of lighter weight bottles; and

- increasing the use of recycled glass in UK wine bottle manufacture by 44,295 tonnes per annum, by increasing bulk importation of wine for UK filling by the equivalent of 190 million 75cl glass bottles.

It is also estimated that switching to bulk importation from traditional pre-bottled transportation makes a further CO₂ saving of up to 40%.   

Nicola Jenkin, responsible for the drinks category at WRAP, said the achievements were in line with the targets initially set but that further work could be done by the sector to make further savings. Nicola says: “We know from our previous projects that huge opportunities continue to exist to use lighter weight bottles and increase the use of recycled content in UK manufactured glass bottles. This is what will achieve a more resource efficient international wine supply chain.

“This second phase of the project has been about engaging with both the UK and international wine sector to identify barriers and opportunities for positive change, and to act as the catalyst to support this change. 

“A particular highlight for the project has been the development of an innovative 300g screw cap bottle - the first in the world. This bottle, developed with Quinn Glass, is 40g lighter than the previous lightest bottle manufactured in the UK and is now being used by major UK supermarkets. 

“If the bottle was adopted for all wine sold in the UK it would generate an annual glass saving of 153,000 tonnes – equivalent to the weight of more than 460 jumbo jets – and cut CO₂ emissions by 119,000 tonnes.

“WRAP has also analysed opportunities for using lighter weight bottles for sparkling wines.  This research, which investigates bottles produced in all the major wine producing regions, suggests that internationally, almost 175,000 tonnes of glass savings could be made through using lighter weight bottles that are still fit for purpose.
 
“A lot of fantastic work is being done by the international wine sector with more and more brands adopting lighter weight bottles or bulk exporting. Building on this momentum is important to ensure the sector continues to improve its environmental impact and play a role in protecting its future during this period of climatic uncertainty,” she adds.

To find out more about using lighter weight wine bottles, increasing recycled content or bulk importation to the UK, visit www.wrap.org.uk/wine where a number of practical resources can be accessed. 

Making the most of international markets

Quality for domestic and overseas recycling cannot be underestimated: this was one of the key messages from WRAP’s third forum on International Markets for Recovered Paper and Plastics in February. Research on the important Chinese export market found that buyers of materials for recycling based their decisions on price and quality, factors in which the UK competes with several other countries. As well as sharing recent research into export markets in China, India and Indonesia, the event analysed market trends and provided an overview of WRAP’s work on MRF material quality and exports. Thought-provoking perspectives came from the paper and plastics industries, the Environment Agency and Defra. You can download all reports and presentations from the conference from the International Markets webpage.

Eagerly awaited targets released for phase 2 of the Courtauld Commitment

Retailers and their supply chains have extended their agreement to improve resource efficiency and reduce the carbon and wider environmental impacts of the sector in a second phase of the Courtauld Commitment. The agreement, signed by 32 major retailers and brand owners so far, including most major supermarkets, signals a move away from weight-based targets and the treating of packaging in isolation.

The aim is to achieve more sustainable use of resources over the life cycle of products and throughout the supply chain. The three new targets are:

• to reduce the carbon impact of grocery packaging by 10% by reducing weight and increasing recycling rates and recycled content;
• to cut household food and drink waste by 4%; and 
• to reduce grocery food and packaging waste in the grocery supply chain by 5%.

You can read more information about the Courtauld Commitment.

Restrictions to landfill could save money and the environment

Restricting some types of rubbish from landfill could save as much as £8.25 billion and 189 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2024, research from WRAP has uncovered. The Landfill Bans: Feasibility Research found that the UK would need to increase the prior sorting of materials to improve recycling rates and quality in order to realise the full benefits. The report estimates landfill restrictions with a requirement to sort may take between four and seven years to implement but could ultimately save money for taxpayers and local authorities because it would result in sending less waste to landfill. The materials identified as offering the best potential for economic savings, taking greenhouse gas benefits into account, are, in order of priority: paper/card, food, textiles, metals, wood and green waste.

Read the full Landfill Bans report.

That’s a question WRAP will be even better placed to answer as we embrace new partners and take the lead on resource efficiency advice in England and Scotland.

This year the UK Governments are due to transpose the Waste Framework Directive into UK legislation.  The waste hierarchy it contains gives a clear order of preference for dealing with waste: prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling, energy recovery and landfill. However, the Waste Hierarchy is a guide, and there may be occasions where alternative actions may provide a better environmental outcome.

It’s timely then that we’ve recently completed a review to understand the potential environmental impacts of a range of waste management options in light of technological and other developments.

In an update to the Environmental Benefits of Recycling report published back in 2006, we’ve evaluated the relative merits of various waste management options such as recycling, energy recovery technologies and landfill for specific materials. As in 2006, we assessed options for handling paper, cardboard, plastics and wood - all materials which feature heavily in the UK’s waste stream. For the first time we also reviewed the published evidence on food, garden waste, textiles and biopolymers and waste management technologies such as anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis and gasification.

Four years after the initial research, our latest conclusion is clear: the evidence supports the waste hierarchy.  Recycling, particularly of paper, cardboard, plastics and biopolymers, offers more environmental benefits and lower environmental impacts than the other waste management options.

The research also shows that UK policies, including an increase in renewable energy, will enhance the benefits of recycling further still over time. Further research is needed to discover if the recycling of textiles and wood make environmental sense but the study indicates there could be substantial benefits in using recycled fibres to manufacture new clothing. We are also developing a methodology for quantifying the benefits of reuse, which sits further up the waste hierarchy. 

The study found that environmental benefits are maximised by collecting good quality materials so that rejection by reprocessors is limited and the recyclate can be used to replace virgin resources.

Improving the quality of recycled materials and building sustainable markets for the reprocessed recyclate is vital. WRAP’s increased responsibilities, from the beginning to the end of the supply chain, will help us do just that.

How do we know that recycling is better for the environment than energy recovery or landfill?

The answer may seem like common sense, but WRAP has taken time to examine the detail of the entire life cycle of different materials to check if recycling really adds up.

Keith James, WRAP’s Environmental Policy Manager, uses life cycle assessment to analyse the issue. The process identifies the environmental impact of a material from its extraction, through use and on to disposal and potential reuse. For example, with wood the assessment would begin with forestry, then converting logs into products such as furniture or plywood. On disposal the wood might form a loop, by being recycled into a new product or end up out of the loop in landfill.

Life cycle assessment is useful to help make decisions between different options for dealing with materials but it is only a snapshot at one period in time. It can cover a range of environmental impacts, such as global warming, resource depletion and eutrophication (the addition of organic or inorganic fertiliser to land or water). However as circumstances may change rapidly, with the development of technology for example, the assessment may have to be regularly revisited. Developments in energy recovery, such as progress in developing pyrolysis, were a driver for WRAP’s recent re-examination of the evidence on the environmental impacts of dealing with waste.
 
James says that building an accurate life cycle assessment of a product or material means ensuring that only relevant data is included. Studies on the use of plastic bottles in Japan, for example, are unlikely to be directly applicable to the UK because circumstances are different.  However, if studies from around the world come to similar conclusions it gives confidence that the results are robust in a number of different situations. Comparing studies also allows us to understand which are the key issues that affect the relative merits of the alternative options. The update to the 2006 Environmental Benefits of Recycling report confirms earlier findings, that recycling offers more environmental benefits and lower economic impacts than other waste management options, but also provides evidence which can be used to inform future developments. The potential to recycle biopolymers is just one example of this.

Read WRAP’s life cycle assessments of a variety of materials in the updated Environmental Benefits of Recycling report.

Europe’s largest home improvement retailer, Kingfisher plc, has taken the top honours at the 2010 Business Commitment to the Environment (BCE) Environmental Leadership Awards. The company received the Sir Peter Parker Award for its outstanding commitment to environmental excellence in spearheading sustainable timber sourcing practices.

Fourteen other companies from multi-national corporations to SMEs also won major awards or commendations across a range of sectors including retail, IT, manufacturing, food and drink and construction.

Founded by Sir Peter Parker in 1975, the BCE Awards scheme is one of the world’s longest running international environmental competitions. It celebrates businesses that an independent judging panel recognises as meeting the commercial demands of the present, without compromising the environment for future generations.

Premier Awards went to global drinks company Diageo’s Shieldhall whisky bottling plant in Glasgow; the UK’s sixth largest water and sewerage company Dwr Cymru Welsh Water; eco-friendly greeting cards publisher Glebe Cottage; and eco-smart store designer Quantum4.

Applications for the 2011 BCE Awards, for which WRAP is delighted to be the lead sponsor, are now being invited. Companies who believe they deserve peer and public recognition for their outstanding environmental performance and leadership are asked to request an application form from the BCE Awards website (www.bceawards.org) and submit it before the closing date of 11 October 2010.