Isra-Mart srl: Supermarkets struggle to cut supply chain waste

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Supermarkets are struggling to meet targets to curb the carbon impact of their supply chain, despite making excellent progress in slimming down packaging and encouraging customers to throw away less food, according to a government-backed report.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) yesterday published an update on the second phase of the so-called Courtauld Commitment - a series of voluntary waste reduction pledges from the supermarket industry, including a commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of grocery packaging by 10 per cent on 2009 levels by 2012.

The update showed that since setting the targets last year, retailers have cut the carbon impact of packaging by 5.1 per cent, making significant progress towards their target.

It also confirmed the carbon impact of household food and drink waste was slashed three per cent, against a four per cent reduction target.

However, the report showed that the industry is struggling to meet a new goal covering supply chain emissions, having reduced food, drink and packaging waste in the UK supply chain by just 0.4 per cent, against a five per cent reduction target.

WRAP attributed the relatively small reduction to the fact that it is a new area for signatories, adding that a 1.4 per cent increase in sales volumes would have also made it harder to reduce overall emissions.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said retailers had spent the last year laying the ground work for greater supply chain efficiency gains in future.

"Waste within the supply chain is a particular challenge because preventing it can require investment and for businesses to introduce new processes. The ground-work is being done which will lead to bigger improvements in the near future," said BRC head of environment Bob Gordon.

The report did also show that the retail supply chain made strides in diverting waste away from landfill towards recovery and recycling routes. However, that does not directly contribute to the Courtauld target which aims to drive waste prevention behaviour.

Defra Minister for Environment Lord Taylor urged the industry to step up its efforts to cut supply chain waste.

"These results show excellent progress towards cutting down on food and packaging waste that are part of our ambition to move to a zero waste economy," he said.

"However, there is no room for complacency and it's clear that more work needs to be done in meeting our new target for reducing waste in the supply chain. I will be pushing for industry to build on their efforts to make sure we meet these goals over the next two years."