Giants like ASDA, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Coca-Cola are all signed up to the Courtauld commitment and are "cautiously optimistic" about hitting the first of their major targets.
This target is to halt the growth in packaging used by those who have signed the Commitment by the end of 2008.
However, the producer responsibility organisation Valpak has warned that work to reduce retail packaging waste currently focusses too much on primary packaging - the packaging that ends up on supermarket shelves. This sometimes means that producer members are having to use more packaging in the distribution of products to supermarkets, known as secondary packaging.
To widen the remit to focus more on secondary packaging will doubtless make the whole process more complicated, and the ever present targets that much harder to reach, but I see this as a good thing.
I feel that the Courtauld Commitment is reflective of the wider environmental targets set in today's society. Targets are important, but not if they mean simply pushing the problem along to the next step in the supply chain, in a desperate attempt to attain those goals. The issues need to be addressed from all angles, even if, unfortunately, this means more work for everyone involved.
On the plus side, WRAP is already starting this process, by aiming to expand the Commitment into the DIY sector. This makes a lot of sense considering the amount of packaging I received along with my wrench, the last time I entered a DIY store to do some home improvement.
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