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By: Dr Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP Posted: 3 Apr 2020
I went out for my rationed exercise cycle as usual today. It is eerily serene - no cars on the roads; the birds are singing; the rabbits are nibbling the grass; the spring blossom is starting to emerge – as if they have reclaimed the space.At the same time, it feels threatening and unnerving. A silent enemy is stalking the streets. And so, we have to do the thing which feels most alien to social...
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By: Dr Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP UK Posted: 3 Apr 2020
Daily life has changed beyond anything I could have imagined barely a month ago. Coronavirus has had a huge impact on all of us, from children being home-schooled through to vulnerable older people who need someone to do their shopping for them so they can stay safe at home. I’m so grateful to all those key workers who are keeping the country running, from the Police to the NHS. And that includes...
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By: Peter Maddox; Director WRAP UK Posted: 27 Mar 2020
We’re all in this together and, in the Maddox household, that’s me, my wife, our 23-year-old son and our 20-year-old daughter – plus Molly the puppy who is a challenge worth a blog on her own.The other day, my daughter and I were peering into the fridge, wondering what to have for lunch, when she held back from grabbing an apple and said, ‘Actually, I think I’ll have the yoghurt as that’s going...
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By: Dr Marcus Gover, CEO WRAP Posted: 12 Mar 2020
Our global food system is a story of both abundant success and dismal failure.On one side booming crop production and year-round consumer choice. The other of failing harvests, hunger and waste. It’s a business model which no self-respecting CEO would tolerate.The cost to people is enormous. Malnutrition is the biggest cause of ill-health in the world. According to the 2018 Global Nutrition...
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By: Dr Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP UK Posted: 24 Feb 2020
I always enjoy a trip to Birmingham. It’s not difficult to imagine what it must have been like when the city was the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution; the ‘City of a Thousand Trades’ as it was named, where creativity and innovation were treasured and nurtured. It must have been a fantastically stimulating place to be.Not only did it spawn a network of small workshops where specialised and...
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By: Carl Nichols Posted: 18 Feb 2020
As I was walking along part of Wales’ beautiful coastal path at the weekend, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the rubbish brought in on the tide. It got me thinking about the type of economy that Wales should have: a circular one where plastic is re-used. Where discarded plastic containers – for example – don’t become eye sores or landfill waste but become useful products again.To...
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By: Dr Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP UK Posted: 24 Jan 2020
This blog is about success and I'm proud to highlight it. This week WRAP has published a report outlining the excellent progress that has been made against the Courtauld 2025 agreement’s food waste and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets. These are helping the UK meet its food waste target under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3. Between 2015 and 2018, annual food and drink waste...
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By: Peter Maddox, Director WRAP UK Posted: 17 Jan 2020
Before Christmas, I made my pledge to become part of WRAP’s #DonationGeneration. Why? Well, as our Love Your Clothes website says, “Did you know that in the UK around 336,000 tonnes of our unwanted clothing gets thrown away every year? And it’s wreaking havoc on our planet”. To illustrate how bad the problem is, I was recently shown an article in a fashion magazine that praised celebrities’ ‘...
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By: Julie Hill, WRAP Chair Posted: 7 Jan 2020
On the last day of the last decade, the outgoing Governor of the Bank of England issued a stark warning to the world. He noted that the financial sector had begun to curb investments in fossil fuels, but far too slowly. He said leading pension fund analysis "is that if you add up the policies of all of the companies out there, they are consistent with warming of 3.7-3.8C”. He made it clear that...
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By: Carl Nichols Posted: 11 Dec 2019
I recently prepared a speech about WRAP Cymru’s Market Development Programme, which is in place to increase the supply of, and demand for, products containing recycled content in Wales. I started by writing a list of everything that our dedicated team has been busy doing to facilitate this in collaboration with others. Seeing it all on paper reminded me just how much excellent work is being done...
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By: Dr Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP UK Posted: 8 Nov 2019
It wasn’t so long ago that investing in renewable energy from sources such as wind, solar or biomass was considered highly speculative. Today they are nailed-on successes delivering affordable energy to UK plc (over one-fifth of it, in fact).In June, we saw a remarkable 18 days (and six hours) without the use of coal-generated power and at the end of September one of our seven remaining coal-...
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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...
