Courtauld Commitment 3 delivers waste savings

 

More than 50 signatories took part in the Courtauld Commitment 3 (CC3), delivering over £100 million business savings by reducing food waste over a three-year period.

The three ambitious targets for the period 2012 to 2015 were:

  • To reduce food and packaging waste by 3% in manufacturing and retail
  • To improve packaging design and recyclability in the grocery supply chain without increasing the carbon impact
  • To reduce household food and drink waste by 5%.

The manufacturing and retail target was met in full, meaning grocery ingredient, product and packaging waste is down 3%. This equates to 219,000 tonnes of food and packaging waste prevented and represents a CO2e saving of 555,000 tonnes over the lifetime of the commitment; the value of the food savings alone were worth an estimated £100 million.

WRAP, which developed and managed the CC3 agreement on behalf of UK governments, also noted more waste had moved up the waste hierarchy as the recovery and recycling rate grew from 95% in 2012 to 99% in 2015 (equivalent to 89,000 tonnes of material in 2015).

The data suggests that signatories have achieved a significant increase in the amount of surplus food and drink redistributed for human consumption in 2015 (18,000 tonnes).

The packaging target was exceeded. This aimed to stop any increase in the impact of packaging in terms of carbon emissions by 2015.

Data shows a reduction at end of the agreement of 7%, significantly better than the target outcome, while the amount of packaging material placed on the market increased by 1% over the same period, to just under three million tonnes. The main contributing factors for this fall were increased recycling rates for different packaging materials and changes in materials composition, where wood, polymer, aluminium and steel packaging have seen reductions both in total weight placed on the market and CO2e impact.

The household food and drink waste target has not been met, with household food waste in 2015 estimated to be 7.3Mt compared to 7Mt in 2012. While this difference may not be statistically significant, it is clear that progress to reduce household food waste at a UK level have stalled.

Steve Creed, director of business programmes at WRAP, says, “The three phases of Courtauld have been a game-changer in bringing businesses together to work on issues of resource efficiency and drive change within their own operations. Results show the industry’s commitment to reducing their environmental impacts and the huge benefit of collaborative action, particularly in the supply chain.

“Reducing food waste in the home is incredibly challenging, given the complex reasons for it, the scale of food waste in the home and the lack of awareness, but it’s clear we all need to do more. WRAP has a plan to work with governments, signatories and consumers for greater public engagement through Love Food Hate Waste and interventions by signatories to Courtauld 2025.”

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