Resources

Report
20 July 2021

Shaping a sustainable recovery.

The Courtauld Commitment Annual Report sets out the progress that has been made by the food and drink sector this year towards achieving the voluntary agreement’s targets and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In yet another turbulent year for food and drink, the sector has continued  to deliver meaningful action on climate change, driving collaboration across the entire food system to measure and reduce food waste, greenhouse gas emissions and water stress.

Initiatives:
  • Food and drink
  • Reducing and preventing food waste
  • Measuring and reporting food waste
  • Surplus food redistribution
  • Water stewardship
  • Courtauld Commitment
  • Food Waste Reduction Roadmap
  • Guardians of Grub
  • Guardians of Grub Becoming a Champion
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • Food date labelling
  • Whole chain resource efficiency
  • Household food waste
  • Behaviour change interventions
  • UN SDG 12.3
Sector:
  • Farmers and growers
  • Hospitality and food service
  • Manufacturers
  • Retailers and brands
  • Local Authorities
  • Trade associations
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations
Report
1 July 2021

The Recycling Tracker is the largest and longest running survey on recycling attitudes, values and behaviours. The Spring 2021 survey had a detailed focus on contamination, with previous waves of the tracker pointing to an increasing trend.

Initiatives:
  • Collections & recycling
  • Communicating with residents
  • Contamination prevention
  • Collections and sorting
  • Kerbside collection
  • Recycling in urban areas
  • Dry materials
  • Organics
Sector:
  • Waste management and reprocessors
  • Local Authorities
  • National government and departments
Report
26 March 2021

Our plan for achieving Net Zero.

This report unveils new insights on how resource efficiency and resource sufficiency can cut greenhouse gas emissions. Developed in collaboration with CREDS researchers at the University of Leeds, it offers a clear, practical roadmap which delivers quick wins.

Initiatives:
  • Plastic Packaging
  • Waste management and end markets
  • Food and drink
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • Whole chain resource efficiency
  • Household food waste
  • Textiles
  • Consumer behaviour
  • Re-use & recycling
  • Non-clothing textiles
  • Design for extending clothing life
  • Re-use
  • Recovered materials markets
  • Product durability
  • Minimising product returns
Sector:
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations
Report
3 March 2021

A report to the Defra Packaging Collections Recycling Working Group on the implementation of plastic film/flexibles recycling within consistency policy.

Initiatives:
  • The UK Plastics Pact
  • Film and flexible packaging
  • Waste management and end markets
Sector:
  • Waste management and reprocessors
  • Local Authorities
  • National government and departments
Report
25 February 2021

WRAP has carried out research on the contribution resource efficiency can make to achieving climate change targets. It covers supply of and demand for materials and products in the UK economy, and also accounts for the trade with the rest of the world. Thus, it covers the contribution from UK territorial emissions and from emissions related to consumption of goods and services imported from abroad.

Initiatives:
  • Plastic packaging design
  • Reuse and refill
  • Film and flexible packaging
  • Reducing and preventing food waste
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • Whole chain resource efficiency
  • Re-use & recycling
  • Non-clothing textiles
  • Design for extending clothing life
Sector:
  • National government and departments
Report
1 February 2021

The Carbon Waste and Resources Metric (Carbon WARM) is a set of conversion factors to enable users to express waste management tonnage data in terms of their Greenhouse Gas emissions relative to landfill.

Initiatives:
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Sector:
  • Waste management and reprocessors
  • Local Authorities
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations
Report
17 December 2020

A world where resources are used sustainably. This is our vision. And this plan tells you what we will do to get there.

Initiatives:
  • Plastic Packaging
  • Food and drink
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • UN SDG 12.3
  • Textiles
  • Collections & recycling
  • UN SDG 12.5
Sector:
  • Farmers and growers
  • Hospitality and food service
  • Manufacturers
  • Retailers and brands
  • Textiles sourcers, producers and designers
  • Waste management and reprocessors
  • Local Authorities
  • Packaging producers
  • Trade associations
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations
Report
10 December 2020

PackFlow Covid-19: The impact on the compliance landscape for UK packaging recycling 2020-2022

Packaging compliance specialist Valpak (a Reconomy Group Company), together with its key partners WRAP and INCPEN, has published updated PackFlow reports which estimate the amount of packaging placed on the UK market (POM) in 2019 (Phase I) and assess the impact of Covid-19 on UK packaging compliance for 2020 and through to 2022 (Phase II).

Despite concerns relating to the potential impact of COVID-19 and the associated restrictions, the report finds that overall compliance with targets proposed in the 2019 packaging consultations will be challenging yet broadly achievable. 

The PackFlow reports cover glass, metals, paper, plastic and wood and are designed to quantify how much packaging is placed on the UK market (POM) and subsequently recycled.  They are also used by UK governments to inform the setting of business recycling targets.

Initiatives:
  • Plastic Packaging
  • Waste management and end markets
  • Collections & recycling
  • Recovered materials markets
Sector:
  • Waste management and reprocessors
  • Packaging producers
  • National government and departments
Report
8 December 2020

Presenting our 2019-20 annual report. A year on from our inaugural annual report where we published our 2018 baseline data we can now present our 2019 data highlights and member actions. 

Initiatives:
  • Plastic Packaging
  • Eliminating problem plastics
  • The UK Plastics Pact
  • Plastic packaging design
  • Global Plastics Pacts
  • Reuse and refill
  • Film and flexible packaging
  • Waste management and end markets
  • Collections and sorting
  • Kerbside collection
  • Re-use
  • Re-use and recycling
Sector:
  • Hospitality and food service
  • Manufacturers
  • Retailers and brands
  • Waste management and reprocessors
  • Packaging producers
  • Trade associations
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations
Report
5 November 2020

New report demonstrates good progress being made across all three targets – food waste, carbon and water – in a challenging year for food and drink.

  • Agile response by signatories to COVID-19 sees new partnerships brokered, over £4m awarded to surplus food sector, and new ‘Best Before’ guidance for surplus food.
  • New Courtauld 2025 Supply Chain GHG Working Group convened to help make faster and more effective progress towards reducing GHG emissions in supply chains.
  • Collective action catchment projects mobilised under Courtauld 2025 Water Ambition.
  • New citizen-facing brand Wasting Food: It’s Out of Date helps citizens make the link between wasted food and climate change.
Initiatives:
  • Food and drink
  • Reducing and preventing food waste
  • Measuring and reporting food waste
  • Surplus food redistribution
  • Water stewardship
  • Courtauld Commitment
  • Food Waste Reduction Roadmap
  • Guardians of Grub
  • Guardians of Grub Becoming a Champion
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • Food date labelling
  • UN SDG 12.3
Sector:
  • Farmers and growers
  • Hospitality and food service
  • Manufacturers
  • Retailers and brands
  • Waste management and reprocessors
  • Trade associations
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations
Report
8 October 2020

Prepared by the World Bank and WRAP on behalf of the government of Mexico, the Conceptual Framework brings together the data on food loss and waste in Mexico for the first time, painting a compelling picture of the current situation an creating a framework for action.

Initiatives:
  • Food and drink
  • Reducing and preventing food waste
  • Measuring and reporting food waste
  • Surplus food redistribution
  • UN SDG 12.3
Sector:
  • Farmers and growers
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations
Report
8 October 2020

Unsustainable production and consumption of food constitutes one of the biggest environmental threats to our planet. Eliminating food loss and waste to the largest extent possible – at all stages from producer to consumer – stands out as an urgent and indispensable step towards more sustainable food systems.

Initiatives:
  • Food and drink
  • Reducing and preventing food waste
  • Measuring and reporting food waste
Sector:
  • Farmers and growers
  • Hospitality and food service
  • National government and departments
  • Non-governmental organisations