Press releases

• The UK’s first ever Food Waste Action Week takes place 1-7^th March
• Partnering with Nadiya Hussain, Food Waste Action Week aims to tackle food waste in the home and help save the planet
• Preventing food going to waste is key to tackling climate change, says UK’s leading sustainability charity WRAP
• With UK households wasting the equivalent of eight meals a week on average, #FoodWasteActionChallenge will help reduce the amount of food wasted at home

In-store take back schemes are expected to undergo a renaissance post-lockdown, as environmental charity WRAP publishes new best-practice guidance to delivering effective retailer-led collection schemes for post-consumer clothes.

• Wasting Food Feeds Climate Change, says WRAP, as momentum grows for UK’s first national week of action on wasting food. 
• Food Waste Action Week names strategic partners, including Asda, Co-op, Hampshire LA, KFC, M&S, Premier Foods, Sodexo, Unilever and Waitrose & Partners.

The European Plastics Pact, which launched in Brussels on 6 March 2020, today publishes the European Plastics Pact Roadmap to direct and drive forward urgent action by the 143 signatories, across 20 countries. This ambitious Roadmap will help signatories develop cross-border connections and share innovations that harmonise and accelerate the Europe-wide development of a circular economy for plastics, and significantly reduce the huge challenge of plastic wastage and littering.

WRAP today publishes its second annual report for The UK Plastics Pact showing that members have made some good progress against targets, including a reduction in the amount of plastic packaging being used, and good progress in plastic recycling at home. But warns the charity’s Chief Executive Marcus Gover, there are significant challenges ahead which need urgent attention to keep the UK on course.

• Web visits show the UK’s thoughts turn to recycling on New Year’s Day.
• Bubble and squeak, honey-glazed gammon and lamb Rogan Josh were the most searched-for post-Christmas dishes last year.
• Still some Christmas confusion over recycling – the Scrunch Test and other solutions…

• Public awareness of the environmental cost of clothes hit home during lockdown, and UK businesses need to act says WRAP. 
• Sustainable Clothing Action Plan cuts carbon and water significantly as new industry agreement urges businesses to fight climate change. 
• Major businesses and organisations sign up to new agreement to tackle climate change and fashion.

This year Recycle Now tapped into the cultural shift of citizens’ new-found respect for the planet, acquired during lockdown. 

• Less than a third of people know that wasting food contributes to climate change
• Wasting Food: It’s Out of Date – household food waste is wrecking the environment
• If every person in the UK wasted no food at home for one day, it could have the same impact on greenhouse gases as planting half a million trees