WRAP launches green packaging showcase

Designers and producers of sustainable packaging technologies are this week being urged to contact the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) as part of a new project intended to showcase best practices in green packaging.

WRAP is aiming to put together a best practice guide to sustainable packaging in the grocery and home improvement sectors and is looking to demonstrate some of the most up-to-date UK technologies designed to reduce product, food and packaging waste.

The government-backed agency said that successful applicants would have their products showcased on its web site as well as at future events designed to promote more efficient approaches to packaging.

Charlotte Henderson, retail supply chain manager at WRAP, said the organisation was seeking input from both large and small firms, adding that the project would help promote sustainable packaging firms by "showcasing current and close-to-market technologies and encouraging faster uptake within the UK".

In addition to promoting new packaging technologies, such as bio-plastics and more efficient designs, the project will seek to open up new markets for those companies selected by assessing barriers to the adoption of sustainable packaging technologies and identifying firms that would enjoy the greatest gains from using new packaging technologies.

Dick Searle at The Packaging Federation welcomed the project, hailing it as "an excellent opportunity for UK companies to demonstrate their undoubted success in packaging innovations and to showcase these in a database which will be accessed widely in the UK and around the world".

WRAP said that as well as existing and close-to-market technologies, it was looking for companies with products that could be developed over the next five years. It added that firms' intellectual property rights will not be affected by participating in the project.