Foodservice sector talks collaboration | Analysis

Business leaders from the foodservice packaging sector recently met to address issues such as industry collaboration and communication, legislative targets and the circular economy. Philip Chadwick reports

Collaboration and communication: these are the two major takeaway points from this year’s Foodservice Packaging Environment Seminar, which ran for one day in Nottingham last month.

The event was attended by over 170 representatives of the foodservice packaging supply chain, from manufacturers and distributors to local authorities and waste recovery specialists. There was a high calibre line-up of representatives from the UK’s biggest operators, both as delegates and speakers: Pret A Manger, McDonald’s, KFC, Costa, Baxter-Storey and Sodexo.

All agreed that when it came to improving packaging recycling and recovery rates, the industry needed to collaborate while also communicating the right message to the public.

Legislative challenges
To give a background on the challenges the sector faced, three speakers outlined the legislative targets that needed to be met: Jane Bickerstaffe, director at Incpen; Sarah Steeds, team leader at the Defra Waste Programme; and Norman Lett, head of regulatory affairs at metals giant Ball Packaging.

Bickerstaffe outlined how the EU’s directives on recycling had developed over the years, leading to the Packaging and Packaging Waste directive in 1994: 10 years from that and it had no impact on littering. Fast forward to 2014 and the latest set of proposed recycling targets, a set of targets that Bickerstaffe said were too tough to hit. The targets have since been scrapped and there’s now a review of the EU Waste Framework Directive.

“It gives us a little bit more breathing space,” she explained. “We have not informed all MEPs what packaging does to enable people to live the way they do. It responds to trends and social demographics. Business needs to have the freedom to innovate; they need the widest range of materials.”

Bickerstaffe added that the policy makers needed to recognise that one material doesn’t have a monopoly on ticking all the green boxes: all have pros and cons. She also argued that policy makers shouldn’t believe that recycling was the be-all and end-all. “Recycling is not the only way to be efficient in the supply chain.”

Defra’s Steed reported to delegates that the government’s plan is to boost growth in the economy while protecting the environment. The circular economy was about better resource efficiency. She explained that a delegation of Defra had met with the European Commission. The message from Brussels was that it wanted to “draw up a more ambitious plan”. It means that the previous proposals could be amended or withdrawn completely and reintroduced with more focus on waste prevention.

“Everything is a bit uncertain,” she said. “We will work with the commission to achieve a balanced proposal, feasible for all member states.”

But Steed noted that the UK’s recycling rate had flattened to around 44%. The government wanted to make it easier for householders to put the right thing in the right bin. “We are looking more closely between household and packaging targets,” she said.

Ball Packaging’s Lett looked at the European picture and said that the argument needed to be broadened – it wasn’t just about recycling. “We would like to see packaging recycling targets increased, but realistically,” he said. “We invite progressive targets provided they are sensible. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach, not a collection programme. It’s about how the EPR is interpreted and applied and we are pushing for change – it needs to be consistent and harmonised throughout Europe.”

So with so many challenges on the horizon, what are the practical ways for the industry to move forward? How can those recycling rates go up and do some of the major operators hold some of the answers? For keynote speaker Herman Van der Meij, managing director of Viridor, partnerships and trust are the way forward. His company looks for joint investment in new, economically viable facilities, such as a new plastics recovery facility in Rochester, Kent.
“Working in partnership will enable us to close the loop on the circular economy,” he said. “And consumer knowledge is down to communication. We want to spend money to educate people. Our market is under huge scrutiny.”

Working together
As the day progressed, these themes were revisited by a raft of speakers. Richard Swannell, director at Wrap, explained that the Hospitality and Foodservice Agreement was an example of how collaboration has made progress; for example, a 54% recycling rate. However, he warned that more was needed to be done across the supply chain and this needed collaborative action.

John Isherwood, head of sustainability at Pret A Manger, said that he believes in collaboration and it is “the only way to make meaningful progress”. He added that this needs to be done across the competitor set. It is also about working with suppliers and waste collection providers. Isherwood added that it was also about educating the consumer on putting waste in the correct bins to boost recycling and preventing litter. But there was a caveat.

“If you become preachy or holier than thou, then you disconnect them,” he said. “But we have to work hard. Consumers have pre-conceptions on different materials and it gets difficult.”

And when communicating what used packaging should go in which bin, Isherwood urges that you should “keep it simple”. “Co-mingled is the simplest solution,” he added.

Oliver Rosevear, energy and environment manager at Costa, added that it’s about engaging with the consumer. There needed very clear, simple labelling on packaging and that needed to be common across all brands.

“Corporate Social Responsibility is at the heart of what we do,” he said. “We can report that 72% of waste has been diverted from landfill. We focus on the paper cup, an iconic part of our brand. We work with Huhtamaki to reduce resources that go in the cup. The challenge is to get that cup from the consumer’s hand to the recycling stream. It’s all about collaboration and giving consumers greater information that the cup is 100% recyclable.

“There is a need for a national recycling stream and create a value, and opportunity, for recycling.”
One speaker outlined his determination to create a market for the collection of paper cups. Peter Goodwin from the Simply Cups Recycling Scheme, said that the project was the only dedicated cup collecting scheme and runs in collaboration with Closed Loop Recycling and Simply Waste Solutions. In the future, Goodwin wants to grow the membership but warned that there was currently not enough value for the product. The solution is to increase volume to create a bigger market. The only way to do this was through collaboration.

Engaging with operators is also vital, according to head of sustainability at Baxter Storey Mike Hanson. He challenged the industry to engage more and talk about its needs. Manufacturers needed to talk more to contract caterers and engage with them over product design to boost recovery rates.

So what’s the picture from local government? The chairman of the Local Authorities Recycling Advisory Committee, Andrew Bird, warned that unless there was more joined up and strategic thinking, then he did not believe that recycling rates would move forward in England.

“There are 140,000 jobs in England’s waste industry with a turnover of £11bn,” he said. “But we are missing an opportunity. Setting policy and direction will give confidence and further investment. We need to stop blaming different sectors of the supply chain. We also have to stop using the term ‘waste’. It costs us financially. All these materials have value.”

Bird clashed with the Conservative MP for Rugby Mark Pawsey, who called for the foodservice and foodservice packaging sectors to collaborate to device a code of practice to improve recycling and recovery rates. Bird believed that this was a job for the government and Pawsey sensed among delegates that there was desire from some that this was the best way forward.
However, Pawsey warned that such an approach was risky. His view was that if it’s left to central government, then the industry would be stuck with restrictive legislation that it wouldn’t want.

The industry will wait with interest how recycling and recovery policy will be shaped. However, the feeling is that this is a sector that recognises the need to work together – and is willing to do this.