Overpackaging – can we make it stop?

Posted by bluemoon on 23rd June
Tagged with: campaigns overpackaging recycling
1 comment >>

This question was posed to us recently by a Green Thing member:

"Are there any specific campaigns out there to pressure for the reduction of packaging for ordinary folk? I know the Women’s Institute have a campaign but have been unable to find one outside of that...”

Actually, there aren’t perhaps quite as many as you’d think but they do exist. The WI’s campaign is probably the most famous one, and they also have a helpful Packaging Campaign Pack you can download from their website.

Here are some others:

Overpackaging.com

These chaps go for the 'naming and shaming' angle. People are encouraged to send in their photos of obscene overpackaging, and the website tackles the retailer over it and prints their response. Amongst the offenders are Amazon, Cadbury and an M&S shirt which had 12 separate items holding it together, as the site notes "this is not just any overpackaging, this is M&S overpackaging."

Dump the Dump / Take it back

The campaign itself seems to be inactive now, but there is a handy pre-written letter of complaint you can download and send off to your local supermarket.

Friends of the Earth has some advice about contacting your Trading Standards Officer, which is precisely what this MP did.

LighterFootstep.com has a piece about 5 ways to fight retailers on overpackaging.

Or you could always dump your packaging at the supermarket and tell them the government told you to, like these 3 Guardian writers did.