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LOCAL MP AND MSP BACK CAMPAIGN AGAINST EXCESS PACKAGING
November 22, 2007 5:15 PM
Dunfermline and West Fife MP Willie Rennie and Jim Tolson, MSP for Dunfermline West are backing a national campaign aimed at reducing excess packaging.
It is estimated that excessive levels of packaging account for around five million tonnes of household waste each year and cost families an average of £470. The Liberal Democrats have called for the establishment of a national body to promote and enforce packaging reduction, and for consumers to be given the right to leave packaging in supermarkets for disposal.
Mr Rennie is supporting efforts by his Scottish Liberal Democrat colleague, Jo Swinson MP, to bring in a Packaging (Reduction) Bill, which would strengthen packaging regulations and would replace voluntary targets for packaging reduction with binding ones. However, despite recent assurances by the Prime Minister that he would put the environment at the heart of his programme, the Government failed to allocate parliamentary time to properly debate the measures.
Mr Rennie and his Liberal Democrat colleagues are determined to continue the campaign. He commented:
"Excessive and wasteful packaging makes no economic or environmental sense. Despite increases in recycling, domestic waste has risen by a fifth since 1997 and the Government's attempts to tackle this problem have been too timid and too slow.
"The Packaging Reduction Bill would give consumers the right to send their packaging back to the manufacturers and would help Trading Standard Officers to clamp down on waste. I hope the Government re-thinks their failure to support these measures."
Willie Rennie is also campaigning for a mandatory marking scheme for plastics to be introduced to help make them easier to identify for recycling.
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