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By: Richard Swannell, Director, WRAP Global Posted: 16 Oct 2019
The correlation between fixing our dysfunctional, unsustainable and inequitable food system and tackling climate change is clear.In fact, it has become one of the pressing issues of our time. How are we going to feed and nourish a growing population, encourage economic development and tackle climate change at the same time?I’m encouraged to see that the message of this year’s World Food Day is...
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By: Dr Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP UK Posted: 11 Oct 2019
I recently read a fascinating infographic produced by Green Alliance, proposing a step change in the UK’s resource efficiency as one of five policies that could, together, plug the significant gap between our current climate policies and what is needed to deliver the Government’s new ‘net zero’ carbon target by 2050.It reminded me of a report that WRAP produced in 2009, fully ten years ago,...
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By: Peter Maddox, Director WRAP UK Posted: 2 Oct 2019
I was in a very positive mood when I came away from the recent annual Recoup conference. The quality of the debate and the wide range of roles and interests of those taking part really impressed me. As did the excellent turnout and the rigorous chairmanship of broadcaster Tom Heap. A colleague who’d also attended spoke of her optimism at the energy and participation from the audience, challenging...
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By: Dr Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP Posted: 27 Sep 2019
This week – Recycle Week – is always busy for WRAP. This year has been particularly so, as it has coincided with both the publication of the first results of the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap in partnership with IGD and the annual Champions 12.3 gathering in New York. Just one year since the launch of the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap over 150 UK businesses, representing over half the sector,...
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By: Dr Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP Posted: 2 Aug 2019
I was watching the commemorations of the first Moon landing recently. I do just about remember watching the actual thing, although I was very small then. Those pictures of the earth from space remind me of what an amazing planet we have. It still blows my mind that it is only our planet that has allowed life to flourish and evolve into the wonderful biosphere that we have. Billions of years of...
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By: Peter Maddox Posted: 18 Jul 2019
Keynote speech delivered by Director of WRAP UK Peter Maddox at the Packaging News Environmental Packaging Summit: London, July 16 2019I was at my son’s graduation yesterday. It’s always a proud moment for any parent. As your child stands on the threshold of their adult life you can sit there thinking you’ve done your job in preparing them for the future.But it made also made me reflect on what...
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By: Richard Swannell, Director, WRAP Global Posted: 19 Jun 2019
This year’s line-up for the BBC Food Chain’s Global Food Champion illustrates the complex challenge we face in tackling our unsustainable and inequitable global food system. Spiritual leader Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was relaxing after a feast at his temple near Calcutta when he heard a commotion out of his window. Looking out he saw children fighting with dogs over scraps of food. He...
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By: Julie Hill, WRAP Chair Posted: 11 Jun 2019
Last year, I was honoured to be invited to join the Speakers for Schools programme. Founded by journalist Robert Peston, the scheme matches speakers from all areas of life with school students of a variety of ages, to great mutual advantage in terms of understanding each other’s agendas. In recent months we have seen the emergence of young people as a powerful voice in the climate and...
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By: By Marcus Gover CEO, WRAP Posted: 21 May 2019
The UK Plastics Pact One Year On: Foundations are laid; let’s build on themAll of us gathered at the launch of The UK Plastics Pact last year – politicians, business leaders and my colleagues at WRAP - were aware of the unique opportunity we had to redefine our relationship with this material which had become part of our daily lives. And to fix forever the broken plastic packaging system...
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By: Dr Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP UK Posted: 17 May 2019
I had a timely and welcome opportunity this week to set out WRAP’s approach to sustainable packaging – only a day or two after the four government consultations on resources and waste policy closed. I was a witness at the first hearing of The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee’s Inquiry into plastic food and drink packaging. The topic was quite specific, but it raised many of...
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By: Dr Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP Posted: 15 May 2019
In the sunshine of the courtyard at the V&A Museum on Monday a diverse crowd of scientists, business leaders, politicians, councillors, campaigners, academics and restaurateurs gathered to enjoy a feast of leftovers cooked up by a star-studded cast of celebrity chefs.
It was the perfect prelude to the ‘Step up to the Plate’ Food Symposium organised this week by the Food Surplus and Waste...
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By: By Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP UK Posted: 7 May 2019
You’d have to be living on another planet not to have been aware of the current focus in the UK on the future of our own planet. Of the many questions raised over climate change, one affects us all: can we as individuals make any difference? If so, what can, and should we do? The answers lie in a cocktail of politics, science and good-old gut reaction.Three recent events last month stand out for...
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By: Julie Hill, WRAP Chair Posted: 30 Apr 2019
Even in a normal week, the gathering of very stylish people at the V&A under the banner of ‘Fashion Revolution’ might have attracted a good amount of attention. As it was, given the Extinction Rebellion protests and with Greta Thunberg visiting the UK, the subject of sustainable fashion had huge visibility and became part of the bigger conversation. The debate around our fashion consumption...
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By: Peter Maddox Posted: 23 Apr 2019
As I settled down to watch the Man City vs Tottenham Champions League match the other night, where Tottenham started the match one-nil up on aggregate, I began to think about what it is like to start a match with an advantage. Certainly, in the year since I took the role of Director of WRAP UK, a new business unit within WRAP which brought together our government-focused and business-focused...
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By: Peter Maddox; Director WRAP UK Posted: 22 Mar 2019
I can’t think of many locations in film which are quite as evocative as the sweeping landscapes of Lawrence of Arabia. They were partly filmed in Morocco, a country I am excited to finally discover this week.As always, though, the romantic in me has been tempered by my scientist alter-ego. Because I am learning that behind all the exotic charms of this beautiful country, there lies a more bleak...
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By: Julie Hill, WRAP Chair Posted: 19 Mar 2019
Like me, you probably have a drawer in your house filled with redundant tech: vintage phones, unidentifiable chargers, cables that sometimes work but sometimes don’t. Collectively known as WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment), it may include that old laptop that you may just need. Or the old laptop that you’d love to give away, but are worried about the data it holds. ...
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By: Marcus Gover Posted: 12 Mar 2019
Most employees will eat at least one meal at work during their day. Despite our best intentions, eating ‘on the go’ can be challenging and many will recognise the temptation to fall into bad habits in the food we buy, and generating food waste.As experts in food sustainability, we’re probably more tuned into our habits than a lot of other people at WRAP, but that didn’t mean that the odd piece of...
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By: Peter Maddox Posted: 19 Feb 2019
Today’s report from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (Fixing Fashion) is a welcome appraisal of the situation regarding clothing; how we make and use our clothes. The report makes damning reading from a social and environmental perspective, focussing on fashion’s contribution towards climate change and plastic pollution, and it should serve as a wake-up call to every consumer....
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By: Julie Hill, WRAP Chair Posted: 15 Feb 2019
Governance post-EU exit is a national conversation, and there are radical implications for how environmental governance will be conducted.Draft clauses for the Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill were published on 19 December. They aim to enshrine environmental principles, including the ‘polluter pays’ and ‘precautionary’ principles, in English law. A new Office for Environmental...
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By: Dr Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP Posted: 14 Feb 2019
These are lean times for the restaurant industry.According to a recent study by accountants Price Bailey, the number of restaurant insolvencies has reached a record high, with an average of four closing every day. A range of factors, they say, including market saturation, rising costs and changing consumer spending habits, are all combining to put pressure on the sector.Which is why the release...
