Resources

The UK Plastics Pact is transforming the way that the UK makes, uses and disposes of plastic. 

Over halfway to our 2025 targets, the Roadmap sets out the specific milestones and activities which are critical if we are to achieve our goals in the years remaining.

A consistent methodology for businesses to measure and track progress in reducing supply chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

This Implementation Resource has been created to supplement WRAP’s Guidance on Labelling for Redistribution (the Guidance), which outlines how long different foods can be expected to be suitable for redistribution after the ‘Best Before’ date, the associated date labelling and storage instructions and the processes required by food businesses and redistribution organisations within the UK to ensure that surplus food is safely redistributed.

Plastics play an important role in our daily lives and can often play a critical role, for instance, in protecting food and preventing food waste. But we must take urgent action where the use of plastic is problematic or unnecessary, to stop the issues plastic presents to our environment.

UK Plastics Pact members account for two thirds of all consumer plastic packaging used in the UK and they are strengthening their ambition in the fight against plastic waste. Building on the eight problem plastics identified for elimination in 2019, six new plastic items and materials have been set for elimination.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the Courtauld Commitment 2030. With COP26 fresh in the memory, climate change a daily item in the news agenda, and with a growing number of other challenges to food security and supply, the work we are doing together to fix the food system has never been more vital, or more urgent. The new and ambitious Courtauld 2030 targets are firing up our signatories as never before to take collaborative action and Target, Measure and Act on the sustainability issues that matter most to the food and drink sector, and that will have the greatest impact to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

Our third Annual Report provides the most complete picture of action on tackling plastic packaging waste in the UK. It combines aggregated Pact member data from right across the supply chain, with examples of members progress against the targets. This enables us pinpoint where specific action is needed.

So, three years in, what does the picture look like?

Protecting critical water resources for food supply, for nature and for local communities.

There has never been a better time for forward thinking businesses to get ahead of regulation. There is a business imperative to collaborate, innovate and find ways to create both impact and commercial opportunity. The challenge is to go beyond targets by delivering practical changes that go beyond ‘greenwash’.

The UK in partnership with Italy hosted the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) from 31 October to 13 November 2021, with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching Net Zero by the middle of the century. As the global food system contributes around 30% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, changing the way we grow, process and consume food will be a central plank of delivering a Net Zero future.

The United Nations Food Systems Summit took place in September 2021, outlining the effects of our current food system and what can be done to improve it in a way that delivers benefits to people and planet. To do this, we need to understand where to act across the world, how to deliver change rapidly and - crucially - cost-effectively. The scale of the change needed is monumental.

Co-hosted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Resources Institute (WRI) and WRAP this online event explored and debated what needs to be done and how. A new report on how to deliver a Net Zero food system for one large economy - the UK, was published on the day of conference: UK Food System GHG Emissions.

This summary of WRAP research is regularly updated to provide a concise overview of how much food surplus and waste arises in the UK every year, how this has changed over time and what more is required for the UK to achieve national and global food waste reduction targets.

Total UK food & drink consumption footprint and pathway to a 50% reduction by 2030. 

New research shows:

• How food system greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have changed from 2015 to 2019.
• Where GHG emissions ‘hotspots’ remain in the UK food system (including in supply chains overseas).
• Priority areas for action in the short term to help achieve the targeted reduction by 2030.

Highlighting progress made in the third year of the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap:

• 251,000 tonnes of food worth £365 million saved from waste.
• 670,000 tonnes of GHG emissions potentially avoided.
• 145 million meals redistributed.
• Major opportunities for greater impact remain – industry action focused on Hospitality and Food Service sector and whole chain collaboration.