Report Over-Packaged Goods To Trading Standards

WASTE managers at Oxfordshire County Council have added their voices to the current national calls for the amount of packaging on food and other consumer products to be cut.
Large amounts of cardboard, clingfilm and other plastics come with most goods that are bought in the shops. Environment Minister, Ben Bradshaw has invited people to take their own action and report examples of over-packaging to their local councils.

Andrew Pau, Head of Waste Management at Oxfordshire County Council, said: “I am glad to see that this debate is now taking off at a national level and in the corridors of power.
“People in Oxfordshire are great at recycling and getting better all of the time. We are among the best in the country. However the simple fact is that if there was less packaging on consumer goods the issue of what to do with waste would be less acute.
“This is all about tackling a problem at root. At the moment we create problems for ourselves as a society by allowing this kind of extravagant packaging to carry on as the norm.”

Councillor Roger Belson, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, said: “Oxfordshire people are ahead in their thinking about these kinds of issues. The debate about packaging has been going on for some time in the county. It is pure common sense. Less packaging means less wasted resources and less waste to dispose of. There is no counter argument. It is about time we started to see some national direction on this issue with organisations compelled to do something about it.”

If you want to report a case of a ridiculously over packaged item, contact Trading Standards on (0845) 0510845.