Waste Forum Meeting 'Packaging Special'

Are you tired of seeing a piece of veg wrapped in plastic then surrounded in a box? Want to know how you can save your business money on packaging and waste disposal. Confused about what you can recycle and where? What are the producer responsibility regulations with packaging? How does packaging feature in Wales’s waste management plans?

For the answers to these and many more questions please join Swansea Waste Forum at The Environment Centre on Thursday the 15th April. The meeting is open to anyone working with packaging or interested in waste in general. For more information please e-mail or call 01792 480200

Why Bother?

· In 2001 UK households produced the equivalent weight of 245 jumbo jets per week in packaging waste.

· Every year each person produces 4 times as much packaging waste as their luggage allowance on a jumbo jet.

· Around 11% of our household waste is plastic and 40% of this is plastic bottles.

· The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year. This rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in London in less than 2 hours.

· Every year UK households throw away the equivalent of 3 ½ million double-decker buses (almost 30 million tonnes), a queue of which would stretch from London to Sydney(Australia) and back.

· The UK produces 3 million tonnes of plastic waste each year. Approximately 85% is landfilled, 8% incinerated and 7% recycled. In 2001, 250,000 tonnes of plastic was recycled in the UK, of which 205,000 tonnes originated from packaging.

We hope to see you there. Please circulate this information to anyone you think may be interested.

Click here for Defra's Packaging Strategy