Public urged to take a stand against packaging

A government minister has called for direct action by the public against "excessive and unnecessary" food packaging.

Ben Bradshaw, the Local Environment minister, urged people to strip off unnecessary wrapping and leave it at the checkout. He also said producers of particularly superfluous packaging should be prosecuted for wasting resources. As evidence of the problem, he pointed to a boxed product from Pizza Express with double the packaging of a Sainsbury's budget pizza and criticised Jacksons of Piccadilly for selling a box containing individually wrapped teabags.

During one of his first engagements since being promoted to minister-of-state rank on Friday, Mr Bradshaw said: "I would urge people, if they find excessive and unnecessary packaging, to leave it at the supermarket checkout and to report it to trading standards."

His remarks dismayed supermarkets which had just emerged from a meeting with the minister about their plans to reduce packaging.

Despite years of pronouncements about the need to reduce packaging, the amountrose by 12 per cent between 1999 and 2005. Britons annually throw out five million tons of packaging.

Under the Courtauld Commitment agreed last year, 13 retailers have promised to halt the rise in packaging by 2008 and to start reducing it by 2010. So far they have cut packaging waste by 35,000 tons, according to figures from the Waste and Resources Action Programme. The target is 340,000 tons by 2010. At a press conference after meeting the signatories, Mr Bradshaw suggested the Government would consider legislation unless companies kept their promises.

Dumping of over-packaged goods has happened in shops in Germany regularly but only occasionally here. Suggesting the direct action, Mr Bradshaw said "refuse" should be at the top of the environmental hierarchy of "re-use, reduce and recycle".

David Bellamy, environmental manager for the Food and Drink Federation, was surprised at the call. "I don't think we would necessarily go down that route. Our members' perspective is that they are working to minimise the amount of waste," he said.

A spokesman for Tesco complained that the idea had "practical issues" while Sainsbury's ventured it might even be illegal under the 2005 Clean Neighbourhoods Act. Sending e-mails to the managing director would be better, said Alison Austin, Sainsbury's policy director.

Mr Bradshaw was defiant in a later interview with The Independent. "It's up to people to decide," he said. "But if anyone finds something that's over-packaged I would urge them to complain and if they feel really strongly about it to leave it for the supermarket to deal with ...At a time when we are trying to get across the message that the reduction of waste is important in the battle against climate change, it's even more inexplicable ... that goods are overpackaged."