Waste sector has crucial education role to play – WRAP

Goodwin, who held a live Q&A on twitter today (July 16), gave her thoughts in response to a question from edie on how the waste industry can deliver best value in the future. She tweeted: “Helping us all – businesses and consumers to treat materials as resources, not waste”.

Goodwin stressed the importance of delivering the right message to organisations and households in achieving this. “Communication must be clear – people are keen to do what they can,” she tweeted, adding that recycling was “getting clearer, easier and a habit for many”.

Hinting that WRAP endorsed the Government’s line by favouring an incentive-based approach to recycling, she said that bin fines should “only be a last resort” and that it was “better to engage people and make it easy for them”.

Goodwin added that businesses were increasingly aware of their waste arisings and taking action to reduce these impacts. Since taking the helm at WRAP in 2007, Goodwin has helped drive progress in this area through the Courtauld Commitment – a voluntary code of practice involving major retailers, brands and their supply chains, to achieve significant reductions in packaging.

Last month WRAP launched a new voluntary agreement on food and packaging waste for the foodservice sector which aims to save over £45m and cut carbon by 342,000 tonnes.

Maxine Perella