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LONDON - A British Government minister yesterday called for a public revolt against "excessive and unnecessary" food packaging.
Supporting direct action by consumers, Ben Bradshaw, the Local Environment Minister, urged people to strip off unnecessary wrappers and leave them at the checkout.
He also said producers of particularly superfluous packaging should be prosecuted for wasting resources.
As evidence of the problem, Bradshaw pointed to a boxed Pizza Express pizza with double the packaging of a Sainsbury's budget pizza. He also named and shamed Jackson for selling a box containing individually-wrapped teabags.
Bradshaw, carrying out one of his first engagements since being promoted to minister of state on Friday, said: "I would urge people, if they find excessive and unnecessary packaging, to leave it at the supermarket checkout and to report it to trading standards."
His remarks dismayed supermarkets, which had just emerged from a meeting with the minister about their plans to reduce packaging.
Britons annually throw out five million tonnes of packaging and six million tonnes of food.
Under the Courtauld Commitment agreed last year, 13 retailers have promised to halt the increase in packaging by 2008 and start reducing the total by 2010.
Bradshaw suggested the Government would consider legislation unless the likes of Tesco and Boots met their promises.
A spokesman for Tesco said the idea had "practical issues", while Sainsbury's ventured it might even be illegal under the 2005 Clean Neighbourhoods Act.
- INDEPENDENT
