M&S and Lidl Perform Badly in UK Packaging Survey

The LGA commissioned British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) Social Research to buy a range of common food items from eight retailers.

26/10/07 Up to 40 per cent of a regular household shopping basket cannot be recycled. Therefore British supermarkets must take urgent action to reduce excessive packaging or Britain will fail to meet its recycling targets. This warning comes from a new research named War on Waste, issued by the Local Government Association (LGA).

The LGA commissioned British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) Social Research to buy a range of common food items from eight retailers. The most environmentally friendly retailers have low levels of packaging a high proportion of which is recyclable. Analysis of the purchases found that local retailers and market traders produced less packaging and that more of it could be recycled with the larger supermarkets lagging behind.

The researchers found five per cent of the total weight of shopping baskets was made up of packaging. The supermarket with the heaviest packaging was Lidl (799.5g), while the contents of the Marks & Spencer basket had the lowest level of packaging that could be recycled (60 per cent).

Asda was the best performing supermarket, with packaging weighing 714g 70 per cent of which was recyclable. But the traditional open air market was the best overall, with packaging weighing 710.5g, 79 per cent recyclable.

Recycling rates in Britain are increasing as more people do their bit to protect the environment. Councils are also extending and improving their recycling services in a bid to reduce the amount of waste thrown into landfill sites. The LGA has warned these efforts to meet EU recycling targets will not succeed unless supermarkets do more to reduce excessive packaging.

“Many supermarkets are taking action to cut back on excessive packaging, but this research proves there is an urgent need to do more. Councils and council tax payers are facing fines of up to £3 billion if we do not dramatically reduce the amount of waste thrown into landfill”, says Paul Bettison, chairman of the LGA's Environment Board in a press release.