Requiring supermarkets and other large stores (exceeding 3,000 square feet) to provide facilities for customers to leave in store any excess packaging on products they have bought.

Household waste in England now totals 24.2 million tonnes (Mt) per year which equals 472 kg per person (more than six times the average human body weight) or 1,072 kg per household (6½ pounds per day). There is a further 3.1 Mt of other municipal waste to give a total of 27.3 Mt collected by English local authorities during 2008-9. Over half of this, 13.8 Mt, goes into landfill which is the worst environmental option as the methane it produces is a potent greenhouse gas with at least 21 times more negative environmental impact than carbon dioxide.  3.3 Mt is incinerated and 10.1 Mt is recycled or composted which is a much increased proportion of the total over the last 15 years but means that the UK is still well behind many other European countries which recycle well over half of their municipal waste.

Roughly 5.9 Mt of annual UK household waste is used packaging.  We throw away about 455,000 tonnes of plastic bottles every year, about 9.1 billion bottles or one per day per household. Many of these end up in landfill where, because plastic bottles are light but bulky, they take up a lot of space. In addition an average household uses 600 steel cans, 200 aluminium drink cans and 200 glass bottles and jars each year.

Excessive packaging such as green beans on black plastic trays, shrink-wrapped cucumbers, bananas in bags, apples in hermetically-sealed containers and a computer mouse in the equivalent of an Easter egg box have led to a campaign to try to force retailers and manufacturers to reduce the packaging they use.  In addition we need to have a larger proportion of packaging that can be recycled.  

A 2009 Local Government Association (LGA) survey showed that around 40% of supermarket food packaging cannot easily be recycled.  Councillor Margaret Eaton, chair of the LGA, said: 'At a time when we're in recession and shoppers are feeling the pinch, we have to move on from a world that tolerates cling filmed coconuts and shrink wrapped tins of baked beans. Families are fed up with having to carry so much packaging home from the supermarket.'  Paul Bettison, chairman of LGA's Environment Board, said: 'People are working hard to increase their recycling rates, but their efforts are being hamstrung by needlessly over-packaged products on sale in supermarkets. We all have a responsibility to reduce the amount of waste being thrown into landfill, which is damaging the environment and contributing to climate change.  If we had less unnecessary packaging it would cut costs and lead to lower prices at the tills. When packaging is sent to landfill, it's expensive for taxpayers and damaging for the environment. Supermarkets need to up their game so it's easier for people to do their bit to help the environment.'

At least 28 countries have 'take-back' laws which either require manufacturers or retailers to take-back a high proportion of what they sell at the end of its useful life or give consumers the right to take products back to where they bought them. These laws encourage producers to act at the design phase of their product and packaging which is the best way in which to engineer a reduction in single-use packaging.  If retailers know that it will be consumers rather than lawyers who will decide whether their packaging is appropriate then they are much more likely to put resources into reducing the packaging associated with their products.  

In 2006 the then Environment Minister, Ben Bradshaw, recommended that shoppers take direct action by leaving excessive packaging at the tills to force the pace of change. The Jury Team will legislate so that retailers will have to have an area where consumers can leave behind any packaging they do not require, shifting the burden of waste from the consumer to the retailer.

It was reported in April 2009 that for their own purposes Tesco was undertaking market research by letting its customers remove and leave plastic and paper packaging from products purchased in store. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco executive director for Corporate and Legal Affairs, said: 'We know that our customers want us to continue to reduce packaging.  At the same time we need to make sure that we are preventing unnecessary food waste.  We are looking to find the least amount of packaging necessary and this trial will help us to establish customers' views.'  This test shows the feasibility and sense of the proposed legislation.

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