Packaging, especially the packaging on food items in supermarkets has become a seriously hot topic. The CAGs have started to work on finding ways to reduce packaging used in the UK.

		Easter Egg Campaign 2008: Chipping Norton Schoolchildren weighed Easter egg packaging. Many companies have produced 'eco-eggs' with less packaging, but to find out if Easter eggs are unnecessarily over packaged children weighed each component of the eggs which resulted in a large variation in how much packaging comes with each egg, from 1% to 71%.
		Easter Egg campaign: More can be done to make less waste this Easter! CAG have teamed up with Oxfordshire County Council to find the best and worst packaged Easter Eggs available this year. Read full report and summary on which eggs to buy including one with fully compostable packaging.
		'I'm perfectly packaged' Day of Packaging Action 30th June 2007: CAGs and WIs campaigned in 8 locations around Oxfordshire to encourage shopers to think about the packaging they buy!
		Packaging Unwrapped event - Janaury 2007: CAG members heard about the 2006 Women's Institute campaign and learned about packaging regulation. The event generated lots of ideas - listed here!
		Background information on packaging: How are other countries dealing with this issue, some of the policy and legislation, news and actions.

More can be done to make less waste this Easter! CAG have teamed up with Oxfordshire County Council to find the best and worst packaged Easter Eggs available this year.

Read full report and summary on which eggs to buy including one with fully compostable packaging.

As we heard at the Packaging Unwrapped event in January there is legislation in place to ensure that manufacturers do not use ‘excessive packaging’ on their products. In order to enforce this law, Trading Standards, who gave a presentation at our event, need complaints from members of the public.

If you are concerned about any over packaged item, please contact:

Trading Standards
County Hall
New Road
Oxford
OX1 1ND

You can email Terry Bonham who presented at Packaging Unwrapped to complain about over-packaged items at: terri.bonham@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Joint campaign with the Oxfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes (OFWI) on Saturday 30th of June 2007. CAGs and Oxfordshire WIs worked together to hold eight awareness raising events around the County. Informing shoppers about thier packaging options outside shops volunteers worked to raise the profile of packaging issues and give out reusable bags, information and a WI survey.

Have a look at what the WI have been up to at www.womens-institute.co.uk

To contact your local WI - who held the packaging unwrapped event June 2006 - and find your local group, please contact: Jane Finnerty, OFWI Campaigning and Current Affairs
Email: jane@svarfair.co.uk
Tel: 01865 553304

To find out more about this or any other CAG campaign, please contact us by calling: 01865 815871 or email: simon.kenton@resourcefutures.co.uk

European examples of packaging reduction:

Drinks bottles: In Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy, drinks bottles (glass and plastic) are re-used time and time again.  There is a universal deposit system on most bottles and supermarkets often operate a deposit system of automated machines that will receive your empty bottle and return the deposit to you.  Some places – many shops in Germany, wine shops in Italy, olive oil producers in Greece, allow you to take your own bottle and have it filled.

Plastic bags: In Germany, Ireland and Austria, where there are plastic bags available there is usually a charge for them.  In Ireland, since the plastic bag tax (15euro cents) was introduced five years ago, bag use has fallen by 1billion/year.

Taking responsibility: Public bins in Germany and Austria (those on the streets, in railway stations and sub-way stations) have up to 7 separate compartments for paper & cardboard, biodegradable waste, glass, left-over waste (landfill) and everything with a green spot including aluminium cans, almost all plastic packaging, Tetrapaks and other packaging which is recycled.  The green spot is used in 26 countries including: Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, the Check Republic, Hungary and Cypress.  In Germany where the Gruene Punkt was introduced in 1990, the labelling system for packaging is in part funded by manufacturers and signifies that the product is one that must be collected for recycling.  The cost of the recycling is subsides by the manufacturers who use the spot on their products and comprises most packaging and plastic products on the market.  Source: www.gruener-punkt.de If a product is unwrapped in a shop, the retailer must responsibly dispose of the packaging.

Denmark are pioneering edible packaging for foods – an example of this in Britain are the rice-paper labels used by the Soil Association.