Small is Beautiful – Retail and the New Waste Strategy

The new Waste Strategy is out and it has several sections that cover the retail sector. Defra has noted that the retail & wholesale sector generates more waste than any other commercial and industrial sector and has made retail a ‘Priority Sector’. The key retail initiatives in the document are:

- Extension of the Courtauld Commitment to non-food retailers
- Agreement on a retailer commitment to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by 2008
- Development of a materials ‘decision support tool’ for packaging

It could be argued that smaller retail businesses have been largely missed out of the Strategy. Obviously tackling the largest retail groups gets the biggest immediate results, but there are a huge number of small and medium sized retail businesses that are being left behind. For example my local corner shop, butcher and greengrocer all give out plastic bags as well as the major supermarkets. The Courauld Commitment has currently been signed by 13 major grocery retailers, however, data from the Office of National Statistics shows that there are around 180,000 retail businesses in the UK.

A large number of smaller retailers are now covered by complex waste legislation such as the WEEE Directive and the Animal By-Product Regulations. Support on resource efficiency and legal compliance with waste issues is crucial for these smaller retailers. For example, the recent survey on retail waste in the North West (funded by the North West Development Agency and the Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network) found that around 15% of the retail businesses surveyed were breaking the Duty of Care regulations.

To create a green revolution across the whole of the retail sector will require support for small retail businesses as well as for the major supermarkets.