Big companies shamed for over-packaging

Monday Feb 5 21:15 AEDT

A Victorian green group has dumped on retail giants Coles, Woolworths and a host of manufacturers, alleging they damage the environment by using too much packaging.

Environment Victoria's annual DUMP awards, now in their third year, name and shame the companies the green group says harm the environment with unnecessary and damaging product packaging.

The awards are judged by an independent panel of experts from academia, local government and the community sector, DUMP awards report author Jenny Henty said.

Woolworths/Safeway and Coles jointly won the people's choice award for "needlessly packing fruit and vegetables, particularly organic products, on polystyrene trays and covering them with cling wrap".

Toymaker Fisher Price's Interactv toy won the award for excessive use of material for its "copious" packaging that included a separate recorded advertisement, powered by three batteries, that the company advises should be discarded despite the fact the toy also requires three batteries.

Beverage companies who packaged drinks in plastic or glass bottles that were then covered with non-recyclable printed plastic sleeves won the award for poor recycling design.

The misleading labelling award went to snack manufacturer Smith's for its Stax chips packaging, which Ms Henty said displayed three different and "confusing" disposal messages.

The Seakist Lunch Kit packaging was named "most likely to be littered" because its packaging contained seven small parts that were likely to be thrown away carelessly or dumped in the bin because no recycling instructions were provided.

The "going backwards" award went to Nescafe for its Short Black coffee jar, which would be rejected for recycling because of its smoky colour and its non-recyclable lid and tamper-proof seals.

Ms Henty, Environment Victoria's zero waste campaign director, said the award winners were "the tip of the iceberg" of companies ignoring the food industry's own environmental guidelines.

"Manufacturers would be hard-pressed to come up with worse products for reuse, easy recycling or waste minimisation if they tried," Ms Henty said.

"Australian consumers are trying to do the right thing at the supermarket, such as reusing green bags and embracing recycling, but are not being helped by excessive packaging, poor design and misleading recycling instructions."

Internationally, retail giants including Walmart, Marks and Spencer and Tesco were responding to criticism with action to significantly reduce waste but Australian supermarkets lagged behind badly.