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News By Michael McCarthy, Martin Hickman and Geneviève Roberts Published: 22 January 2007 The shrink-wrapped swede, bought from a London supermarket at the weekend, says it all. Why on earth add a skin to something that's got a tough enough skin of its own? Wrapping that's entirely unnecessary is not confined to root vegetables: it's everywhere. And today The Independent launches a campaign to highlight how environmentally unfriendly, how problematic and - not least - how irritating the phenomenon of packaging and packaging waste has become. We are asking readers to be at the forefront of it, to bring home to supermarkets and other major retailers how imperative is the need to slim down radically the avalanche of bags, trays, wrappers, boxes, parcels, cartons, cardboard, plastic, foil and clingfilm that is sweeping over our lives. Packaging presents a problem for several reasons. Firstly, it uses up huge volumes of natural resources: oil for plastic trays, bags and wrappers; trees for paper, cartons, and cardboard; aluminium for tins and cans; glass for jars and bottles. About eight per cent of global oil production is used to make plastic, of which a quarter is thought to end up in packaging. Secondly, climate change is hastened by the greenhouse gas emissions from the energy used to make and transport the containers.
Overview We are launching the campaign at what is a key moment for deciding on how we handle our waste products in the future, for two reasons. Firstly, the Government will soon produce a national waste strategy, the first for seven years; we believe new measures to force a cutback in packaging should be part of it. Secondly, most of the major supermarkets have begun to realise that they do have to act on packaging, and have signed an agreement to tackle it. Furthermore, only last week two of them, Marks and Spencer and Tesco, announced multimillion-pound environmental programmes that included packaging reductions. Yet we believe that all of them need to go further and faster, and to this end we are inviting Independent readers to highlight the worst, most unnecessary and most ridiculously over-packaged items they can find on supermarket shelves, or in other outlets: we will take them up with the retailer concerned, and see if they act on it. We feel the campaign will touch a nerve with the public; environmental and consumer groups such as Friends of the Earth and the Women's Institute are backing it strongly.
Presentations How you can help * Do you have an example of absurd packaging? Have you been infuriated by the waste that came with something you bought recently? If so, tell us the details and we will highlight it in 'The Independent' and take it up with the companies concerned. Send your examples to waste@ independent.co.uk 'The amount of excess packaging is preposterous' Peter Tatchell, gay rights campaigner I'm supporting The Independent's campaign, because I've long been active in green issues. A lot of electrical goods come with a surplus of packaging . And it always annoys me when you see fruit and vegetables individually wrapped.
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Workshop Thank you to all of our donors and volunteers for helping hundreds of families and individuals at Shelter Network's programs achieve success over the past year. We look forward to continuing to work together with you to help our community's homeless children and adults return to permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
ABCD Thank you to all of our donors and volunteers for helping hundreds of families and individuals at Shelter Network's programs achieve success over the past year. We look forward to continuing to work together with you to help our community's homeless children and adults return to permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
USOTP's Thank you to all of our donors and volunteers for helping hundreds of families and individuals at Shelter Network's programs achieve success over the past year. We look forward to continuing to work together with you to help our community's homeless children and adults return to permanent housing and self-sufficiency.