Excess Packaging
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S3M-1787, in the name of Jim Hume, on tackling excess packaging. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the innovation and success of the state-of-the-art Eco Deco waste treatment plant near Dumfries which is the first facility of its kind in Scotland; notes that by using advanced technology the plant can process up to 65,000 tonnes of waste a year, recovering resources from waste and eliminating the need for several kerbside boxes and bags as well as wheeled bins; regrets that the UK's levels of waste production are increasing exponentially, with approximately one million tonnes of packaging waste produced in Scotland each year; notes that, although packaging regulations are largely reserved to Westminster, waste management including waste minimisation and recycling are devolved to Scotland, and therefore believes that tackling excess packaging should be a central objective of the forthcoming supermarket summit and that decisive action should be taken to reduce excess packaging through all available levers, including working with product designers and manufacturers in Scotland to encourage sustainable design and sustainable products, developing improved packaging guidelines for adoption by retailers and their suppliers, introducing further Producer Responsibility initiatives and installing ambitious recovery obligations in the producer responsibility regulations for packaging, and developing improved systems for consumers to complain to retailers and Trading Standards officers about excess packaging, and that waste points should be provided in supermarkets where customers can deposit unwanted packaging.
I am grateful to be speaking for the Liberal Democrats in my second members' business debate. I have no doubt that the fact that we have too much packaging resonates with all members who are here and with others, including constituents, environmental groups, neighbours, friends and family members. We are all consumers and we come across excess packaging daily. A trip to the supermarket results in the accumulation of seemingly endless amounts of card, foil and plastic, much of which is disposed of as soon as we get home.
The United Kingdom Waste and Resources Action Programme says that families in the UK spend about £470 on packaging each year, which is one sixth of their food budget. To put the issue into context, the UK dumps 5 million tonnes of packaging each year, of which Scotland's share is 1 million tonnes. A recent survey by my Liberal Democrat member of Parliament colleague Jo Swinson found that Easter eggs take up as little as 9 per cent of the volume of their packaging.
The UK Government's regulations on excess packaging are not working to best effect. Much needs to be done to consider how to toughen the law so that retailers take seriously their role in reducing excess packaging. At present, the commitments that companies have made to reduce packaging are voluntary. We must monitor properly the progress that they make to ensure that those commitments are met, but we also need binding packaging reduction targets for producers and retailers, to replace the current voluntary commitments. I hope that the minister will be able to advise us on that.
We must empower consumers and give them greater choice over the amount of excess packaging that they buy, while ensuring that extra costs for producers are not simply passed on to shoppers. My colleague Mike Pringle is no stranger to the issue, given all his work on the Environmental Levy on Plastic Bags (Scotland) Bill.
I have just completed my own survey on excess packaging, in which an overwhelming 95 per cent of respondents said that too much packaging is attached to the goods that we buy. Crucially, 85 per cent of respondents felt that retailers could help to tackle the problem and 90 per cent felt that we as consumers can also help. Further, 95 per cent felt that any packaging should at the very least be biodegradable, although that does not address the need to reduce packaging and prevent waste in the first place. More work needs to be done with manufacturers to ensure that, when packaging cannot be reduced further, whatever packaging remains can be left to degrade safely.
Sadly, in the survey, only 4 per cent of respondents said that we are doing enough as a nation to recycle, only 4 per cent said that we use our waste efficiently and only 19 per cent felt that there are enough facilities to allow them to recycle. The good news is that 71 per cent said that they would like to recycle more. We have an opportunity to do something positive to fill the gap between what people want to happen and what is happening and available.
The UK Government's waste strategy fails to address the need for constructive changes to be made to its current ineffective Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003. Trading standards departments should be provided with adequate resources to tackle producers of excessive packaging effectively. The UK Government has also failed to meet the UK-wide targets for packaging reduction that were set by the European Union. My colleagues in London are working hard to secure improvements. In Scotland, I hope that the Scottish Government realises that it must make tackling excess packaging a priority in its new waste strategy, not least to meet the EU's waste management directive targets, which may hit strongly in 2013. After all, there is no doubt that prevention is better than cure.
We must make recycling easier for consumers. Let large supermarkets provide waste points in stores where customers can deposit unwanted packaging. We have seen people protest by taking off packaging in the middle of supermarkets and leaving it for the stores to deal with. I do not condone that, but I am sure that there is an opportunity for supermarkets to take the lead and show corporate responsibility. There are early signs that some of them are slowly awakening to that. What a worthwhile advert it would be for any business if it offered to take back any waste packaging from its products.
The supermarket summit is looming. I am sure that many issues need to be discussed at it, including local food and fair trade for producers, but excess packaging must be on the agenda, as it affects everyone. However, supermarkets cannot take all the blame, although they are in a powerful position to demand that their suppliers work into their products a more sustainable approach. Product designers and manufacturers may then realise that they have an opportunity to sell their products to a market that appreciates that less packaging is better and to gain a unique selling point, such as the one that the growing organic sector has found and exploited well.
Some local authorities are providing recycling facilities, but that is not happening across the board. People need to have recycling facilities available to them. Let us make it easier for people to recycle.
Work to build the Ecodeco plant, which is mentioned in the motion and is an intelligent transfer station in Dumfries, started at the end of January 2005. I believe that Michael Russell has visited the plant, as have I. It is now fully operational and processes up to 65,000 tonnes of waste a year from the west of the region, although it could do more. It works on a simple idea: it dries out the waste, sucks out glass, stones and metals for recycling and recovers a fuel. The small amount of waste that cannot be dealt with in that process is then sent to landfill, but that constitutes only 9 per cent of the original mass. The beauty of that type of treatment facility is the fact that people do not have to sort out their kerbside waste. Although that does not educate people in the habit of recycling, it is perhaps an answer for households in areas where recycling facilities are poor or non-existent.
I hope that the Scottish Government will introduce binding packaging reduction targets for producers and retailers in order to reduce significantly the amount of waste that is produced. I look to the minister for assurances that that will happen and that all the foregoing points will be addressed in the forthcoming supermarket summit. I hope that the Scottish Government will put excess packaging right up there as a top priority in its waste strategy, and I look forward to hearing from the minister about what positive actions it will take. Let us stop wasting time; it is time to stop waste.
I thank Jim Hume for this excellent debate. The state-of-the-art Ecodeco waste treatment plant near Dumfries is an exemplar of best practice and puts in context the key mantra "reduce, reuse and recycle". Tackling waste and excess packaging is not some obscure policy backwater; it is very much at the heart of the debate about climate change and emissions reduction strategy.
As members will be aware, during the previous session, the Environment and Rural Development Committee carried out a detailed study of our national waste strategy. As the committee said at the time, the challenge is to compete with other EU member states in terms of best practice. For example, Austria recycles three quarters of the municipal solid waste that it produces.
In Scotland, although the figures vary, the average home produces around a tonne of rubbish each year, which historically has ended up as landfill. However, as Jim Hume pointed out, EU legislation has rightly moved member states away from that poor environmental practice. The EU landfill directive targets are set at reducing annual biodegradable municipal waste to 75 per cent of what was produced in 1995. As we have heard, the aim is to reduce that even further, to 35 per cent of that amount by 2020.
The Ecodeco plant has contributed to Dumfries and Galloway Council trebling the amount of waste that is being diverted from landfill. In my region, the third sector has operated services for Highland Council in areas as diverse as community composting schemes and furniture reuse projects.
As Friends of the Earth has said, the big picture is that we have, worldwide, a relentless cycle of three killer problems—problems that exist not just in industrial nations but in developing nations. First, we have a major problem with overproduction, which uses up valuable natural resources and leads to deforestation, especially of our rainforests, which is a major contributor to climate change. Secondly, we have bad practice in the excessive use of fossil fuels in the production process, which leads to climate change, and in the terrible industrial practice of planned obsolescence. I am sure that we have all appreciated that when we have prematurely had to replace products that should have had a much longer life cycle. The third problem is excessive disposal. Believe it or not, the average person in the UK throws away their body weight in waste in three months. Much of that could be reprocessed instead of being sent to incineration or landfill. As I am sure we will hear when the minister sums up the debate, the Scottish Government has proposed a move towards zero waste and is consulting on a series of new targets, such as reducing landfill from municipal solid waste to 5 per cent by 2025.
One of the key issues is how we incentivise householders and businesses to recycle more. Members will be aware that my colleague Sarah Boyack has suggested cuts in council tax for householders who recycle more. There is also a strong argument for greater enforcement by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Scottish Government on the basis of the polluter-pays principle. Perhaps the minister could confirm in his closing speech whether local authorities that exceed their landfill limits will be fined or allowed to trade allowances, as currently happens in England.
It is ironic and disturbing that, while countries such as Ethiopia are reporting widespread starvation, one third of Scottish food purchases are thrown out. We need to change consumers' and supermarkets' behaviour. We need to cut excessive packaging and have tougher producer responsibilities. We need to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk.
I congratulate Jim Hume on his motion and, possibly, the record for the longest motion lodged for a members' business debate. There is a certain irony in that when we are talking about excess packaging.
The motion allows me to have a mini rant against packaging, wrapping and boxes, as I have done before. When I spoke in a similar debate several years ago, my ire fell on the ubiquitous tray of baking potatoes: four potatoes in a box, on blue card, sealed to resist nuclear attack. They still exist, and tens of thousands will be lying just beneath the earth's surface as I speak, although I am pleased to record that loose baking potatoes can now be purchased at most supermarkets.
Packaging, which is wasteful of materials in production and wasteful of the planet in disposal, is a marketing tool. It is easy to lift and, like the BOGOF—buy-one-get-one-free—offers, means that the purchaser buys more than they require. To put it another way, by the time the purchaser reaches the last vine tomato it is withering, or by the time they reach the last strawberry it is mouldy. It is that or eat the lot quickly for the sake of it, which is certainly wasteful.
Then there is portion size. Many people live in single households now, but members should try to find raspberries that are not prepackaged in such a way that a single person is condemned to eat them for breakfast, dinner and tea.
Not only does packaging challenge our intelligence with problems such as how to open a box of cat biscuits without spilling the contents on the floor or on top of some rather surprised cats—opening a tin of sardines with a key was a doddle by comparison—it challenges our strength. When I recently tried to open the packaging of a garden furniture set, I would have looked to a casual onlooker as if I were trialling for the Commonwealth games. When brains and brawn fail, there is always desperation and the wild wielding of knives and serious scissors.
All in all, unless it is around a peripatetic museum Ming vase, crystal chandeliers or eggs—but not of the Easter variety—packaging gets in the way and is wasteful.
I am for recycling bins—ugly though they are—at the street's end or in the supermarket car park, if only to remind us of how much we throw away as we empty newspapers, card, clothes and cardboard into their cavernous depths. However, they also make it too easy for us to give up on the fight to get rid of excess packaging in the first place or, worse, to think that we are seriously into the green game. The next time that we buy carrots, cauliflowers, apples and bananas, we should try keeping them loose. We will watch them rattle down the conveyor belt and, if the person at the checkout can resist putting them into those wee white bags before we place them in the canvas bags that we have religiously taken with us, we will—believe me—feel like pioneers.
I, too, congratulate Jim Hume on securing the debate. It is important that we discuss how to reduce the unsustainably high levels of waste, including waste packaging, that we still produce in Scotland.
I agree 100 per cent with the thrust of the motion but have not signed it because I have minor concerns about one or two of the specific points in it. Although there is no doubt that waste is still increasing, we have a responsibility not to exaggerate, and to describe the increase in waste levels as exponential is just a little bit excessive. However, we undoubtedly need to tackle the waste problem, and the Scottish Conservatives are fully behind the Government's zero-waste target.
Packaging contributes significantly to waste. Food, drink, toys and household equipment all come with various amounts of packaging. Sometimes it can be easily removed and disposed of, but some of it is bulky and requires considerable ingenuity to unwrap, let alone get rid of—as Christine Grahame has just described so vividly.
There is a growing awareness that something needs to be done about packaging. I found the statistics provided in the Scottish Retail Consortium's briefing for the debate, which I am sure other members have read, reasonably encouraging. Public demand is beginning to drive commercial activity on packaging, and a number of supermarkets, including Asda, are starting to drive home the message by charging for plastic bags or encouraging the recycling or reuse of those that we already have. I was shamed into taking my old bags to Asda just last week, as I had forgotten the week before and was challenged on it.
I feel that the voluntary approach to reducing waste packaging is the way forward, as is demonstrated by the support of many retailers for voluntary company and sector initiatives through WRAP, which aims to reduce the amount of food and packaging waste. I have a second slight quibble with Jim Hume's motion: although I would be very keen for waste points to be provided in supermarkets, I think that doing so should be voluntary and that they should be provided on the initiative of the supermarkets.
The appalling scale of food wastage in Scottish households has recently been highlighted and must be tackled. It borders on the criminal that 40 per cent of the food that is put into the supply chain is wasted, lost or thrown out unused, with one third of the food that we buy being discarded as waste.
Plastic packaging still causes major problems on our beaches, where there is more plastic litter than ever before. I have taken part in the past two annual litter picks at Forvie sands, near Ellon in Aberdeenshire, and have been appalled at the amount of litter that we have gathered—there have been bags and bags of it. It has included plastic bags, cans, cartons, tissues and fuel containers—all sorts of rubbish, much of it plastic, discarded by irresponsible people onshore or at sea. Not only is it extremely unsightly, but it poses a major threat to coastal wildlife, with many seabirds and mammals killed each year by ingesting it. Back in April, we said:
"it is high time that we had a national strategy to tackle beach rubbish".
I reiterate that call today, and I would like to hear the minister's reaction to that.
We also need to consider what else can be done to encourage individual responsibility for litter disposal, as the eco-schools programme does for children. Anyone who has visited an eco-school cannot fail to be impressed by the responsible attitude of the pupils, who have learned about the local environment and understand why they should not drop litter. Perhaps their parents and grandparents need to follow their example.
Waste, including waste packaging, is a serious problem. I am glad that a number of bodies are considering ways of redesigning and reducing packaging and that many larger retailers are beginning to respond to customer demand for that. There is a long way to go but, as public awareness increases, and particularly as the cost of food continues to rise, there might eventually be a reduction in the amount of discarded food and packaging. It is incumbent on us to lead the way and to support any initiatives that will contribute to that.
First, I ask for your indulgence, Presiding Officer, as I express my thanks to 17-year-old Lizzie Milne, who has been helping in my office this week on work experience, and who did much of the research for this speech. I also congratulate Jim Hume on securing his second members' business debate. That gives a score of Jim Hume 2, Jim Tolson 0, which I will have to fix quite soon.
I have discovered that an average Scottish household produces 1.1 tonnes of waste. Worryingly for me, the figure is higher in Fife, at 1.34 tonnes. Waste has been increasing by about 1.5 to 2 per cent per year throughout Scotland. We cannot carry on at that rate. As a society, we are consuming natural resources at an unsustainable level.
"Reduce, reuse and recycle" is a phrase that most of us have become more and more aware of over the past few years. All three Rs will decrease the amount of waste that goes into landfill. As Jim Hume mentioned, excess packaging is the bane of our lives. Packaging costs money and pushes up the cost of goods to the consumer. Some producers and suppliers will argue that packaging is there to protect the goods and that consumers want it, but reducing packaging and ensuring that any packaging that is used is recyclable should be the aim. There is no reason why that is not achievable.
Some supermarkets are now starting to reduce packaging, with one removing much of the plastic packaging from electrical items and others increasing the amount of degradable, biodegradable and compostable packaging. That is just the start of the process.
Scotland has made significant efforts in recent years to increase recycling and composting rates, which have now reached about 25 per cent. Fife Council is now recycling more waste than any other Scottish local authority—some 95,500 tonnes of waste have been diverted from landfill in the past year.
In 2008, Fife Council became the first local authority in Scotland to adopt a zero-waste strategy; it has set itself the ambitious target of sending zero waste to landfill by 2020. Keep Scotland Beautiful has ranked Fife Council's environmental services as the best in the local environmental section for quality and innovation for their recycling season ticket scheme. The season ticket encourages small businesses to recycle as much waste as possible by charging them an annual fee for a ticket, which allows them easy access to recycling centres throughout the area. I thank Elaine Devine and her team for leading on the winning bid. Perth and Kinross Council and other local authorities are interested in implementing the scheme, too.
Recycling centres and kerbside collection schemes are improving and increasing in number, but we cannot be complacent. We have to encourage people to recycle as a matter of course. Kerbside collections are more popular than recycling centres, but it is not always possible to have such collections in all areas.
Recycling and composting are better than disposal options such as landfill and incineration, but it is far better not to produce the waste in the first place. We need to reduce waste by making products using fewer natural resources. There is no magic wand that will solve the waste problem. Waste prevention requires changes, both small and large, from manufacturers, retailers, consumers, communities and local authorities.
Reducing the use of plastic bags will be a big step in the right direction. About 1 billion bags are given out each year in Scotland and it takes about 20 years for a bag to biodegrade. Ireland has reduced plastic bag use by some 90 per cent since it introduced a tax. Now, some stores are starting to charge for bags, as Nanette Milne outlined. I hope that that will reduce considerably the number of bags that are used.
It is clear from the debate that there is great concern among all members of the Parliament about excess packaging and recycling. I am glad that Fife Council has led the way. I can only hope that, for the benefit of the rest of Scotland, other local authorities will now follow Fife Council's example.
I congratulate Jim Hume on his motion. I will address predominantly the first few phrases of the motion, because others have expounded articulately on the complex issues around excess packaging. Before I embark on that, I refer briefly to the issue of people throwing out so much food. I wonder whether that problem is exacerbated by the use of unrealistic sell-by and use-by dates on many food products. Raspberries, to which Christine Grahame referred, often have a two-day use-by date on them, which people take seriously. It is unfortunate that people sometimes think that such foods are going to poison them if they eat them after the two days. When we bought fruit loose, we would have eaten it unless it looked dodgy.
The Ecodeco plant in my constituency, which was opened officially at the end of last year—the minister was present at the ceremony—is a public-private partnership/private finance initiative project run by Shanks and Dumfries and Galloway Council, which will operate for the next 25 years. I mention that it is a PPP/PFI project only in passing, because in other discussions we have heard that the non-profit-distributing model is one model that is considered not to work quite so well for waste disposal projects. I am sure that we will all look carefully at the functioning of the project.
The main difference in the method of dealing with waste that the plant uses is that the waste is separated not at the kerbside but after collection, when it is dried and sorted and combustible materials are removed and converted into fuel. That has caused some discontent among householders; I have heard quite a number of complaints about the lack of recycling facilities on the doorstep. I do not think that Dumfries and Galloway Council has managed to get across the message that a different approach to recycling is being taken, whereby the waste is sorted after it is put into the bin, rather than before it is collected.
According to Councillor Leaver, who asked Dumfries and Galloway Council about fuel pellets earlier this week, the pellets that the plant produces are being exported to Yorkshire, where they are being used as part of the energy mix for a cement works. However, I understand that companies in Dumfries and Galloway are interested in purchasing the fuel, which would complete the cycle and demonstrate the usefulness of the approach that is being taken.
The former council tip next door at Locharmoss has been capped and restored. The methane gas that the decomposition of its contents produces is being extracted, converted into electricity and exported to the grid. That process is estimated to be able to produce enough power for about 700 homes and, according to a press release, will cut annual CO2 emissions by about 20,000 tonnes, which provides an environmental benefit that is equivalent to planting 30,000 mature trees. I am slightly cynical about those figures and I would like to see the calculation, because the gas is still burned, which produces CO2.
That is not all that is being done in Dumfries and Galloway. I will mention a few other community activities. There are three community can recycling projects—in Annan, Dumfries and Stranraer. A community composting project is under development in Langholm, in partnership with the Buccleuch Estates. We have four community furniture reuse projects and numerous charity shops that resell clothes and bric-à-brac.
I learned an interesting fact when I worked with Help the Aged during volunteers week this year. I have always worried about what happened to unsold clothes, but I learned that clothes that are unsold or unsuitable for sale are taken to national recycling projects, where all textiles are recycled. None of that goes to landfill, which I find reassuring.
I congratulate Mr Hume on securing his second members' business debate. I also replied to his first members' business debate, almost a year ago, on local food. If Mr Tolson aspires to the same record, perhaps another minister could mark him.
First, I congratulate Dumfries and Galloway Council on its recent improved waste management performance, which is the hub of the motion. In 2006, Dumfries and Galloway Council landfilled 82,417 tonnes of waste and had a recycling and composting rate of 19 per cent. In 2007, the council landfilled 70,190 tonnes of waste and had a recycling and composting rate of 29.9 per cent. It is clear that the situation is improving.
However, Elaine Murray was right to draw attention to issues that arise from the establishment of the Ecodeco plant, which involves a remarkable piece of large-scale machinery. One issue is that the plant requires a substantial throughput of material, which means that the incentive to reduce the amount of waste is comparatively limited. That is a downside of a PPP project, but I will not make that point too loudly in response to what Elaine Murray said.
Nonetheless, Dumfries and Galloway Council has moved forward substantially as a result of the building of the plant. The technology, which is originally Italian, is remarkable. The plant's opening in December was important for the council and the community and I was pleased to attend with the local member, Elaine Murray.
Dumfries and Galloway is doing well, but everybody can do better. Nobody can rest on their laurels. Indeed, one of our waste officials was in Dumfries and Galloway this week to discuss the next steps on recycling and sustainable waste management.
Scotland's overall performance on waste and recycling used to be dreadful, but it has improved considerably. As for whether it is dreadful, we are moving towards respectability on the European targets, although we are not there yet.
Mr Hume is right to record that waste production is increasing. From 2001 to 2006, municipal waste in Scotland grew by about 1.5 per cent a year. We have the challenging target of stopping the growth in municipal waste by 2010. Some tentative signs show that waste growth is slowing, but the target remains challenging for every local authority.
We must take action on packaging as part of the process, but we should start by accepting that the issue is not as straightforward as we feel that it is. Some packaging is required to ensure that goods reach consumers in a fit state, and sensible packaging can prevent food waste. Food makes up nearly 20 per cent of the average household bin, and I agree with Elaine Murray that oversensitivity to use-by dates can be part of the problem.
The packaging industry acknowledges that overpackaging is a bad thing. It is working hard to reduce packaging within the existing legislative framework—it is important to note that framework. The EU packaging directive operates and the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/1941) govern the composition and characteristics of packaging. Those are the mechanisms by which we can currently deal with the matter, but we need to move forward. The Producer Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 (SI 2007/871) were made on a UK basis. We would like to move forward with those and with particular Scottish schemes that can make a difference. Mr Hume's estimate of the amount of packaging waste in Scotland is broadly accurate; the motion estimates that it is 1 million tonnes, although it is probably around 900,000 tonnes. However, around 600,000 tonnes could be recovered each year in Scotland if we move forward in the regulatory way that we anticipate.
There is a lot of voluntary work on packaging. The waste and resources action programme—WRAP—which is funded by the Scottish Government and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is working with retailers and their supply chains to reduce packaging. They are working specifically on the issue of Easter eggs, among other things. The work is designed to implement an agreement known as the Courtauld commitment, which aims to design out packaging waste growth by 2008; to deliver absolute reductions in packaging waste by 2010; and to identify ways of tackling food waste. Work on that is also being carried out in Scotland by Waste Aware Scotland. Other work includes an innovation fund; the dissemination of material on international best practice; encouraging companies to move to best-in-class and lightweight packaging; and the provision of technical advice.
A large number of issues have been raised during the debate, and I will touch on one or two of those in closing. Binding packaging reduction targets could be a way forward. There will be a consultation on the waste legislation shortly, which Mr Hume mentioned in his opening speech. I hope that he will submit his views, which we will consider carefully. Mr Stewart raised the issue of fining by local authorities. We are reviewing the landfill allowance scheme with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities in line with the concordat, and that issue will be addressed in those discussions.
Mr Stewart also raised the issue of incentives for households. I am struck by the constant growth in that area, particularly in composting. When I was at the Gardening Scotland show two weeks ago, the single small stand that had last year encouraged people to take up composting and to use the reduced-cost composting bins that the Scottish Government supported was this year a three-part stand, with a variety of new products on show. More and more people want to take part in composting and recycling. Indeed, over 80 per cent of people are already doing some recycling. We have to encourage them to do more. Christine Grahame was right to draw attention to the buy-one-get-one-free incentives—or the BOGOF incentives, as she expressed it. That is a key point. The growth in the number of single person households does not match the growth in consumerism. We have to resist that growth, because it is leading to substantial waste. I welcome Nanette Milne's commitment to our zero-waste target. I am sure that her party will echo that. If we all gather round the zero-waste target, we will make progress.
It is good to see the initiatives that a variety of organisations are making along those lines. We should pay tribute to those commercial organisations that realise the problems. For example, I draw members' attention to Tesco's plans. It aims to reduce the amount of packaging on both branded and Tesco own-label products by 25 per cent by 2010. It hopes to have own-label packaging labelled according to whether it can be reused, recycled or composted by the end of this year. It aims to reduce the proportion of waste from its own operations and to increase its own recycling from 71 per cent to 80 per cent, and to double consumer recycling at sites where there are automated recycling units.
That company is doing lots of things, and we encourage all companies to do that, as it is important that they take part. A variety of other issues has been raised in the debate, which we will listen to. Jim Tolson mentioned the issue of a season ticket for small businesses, which already exists in Fife—we want that to be rolled out throughout the country. We will consult further on our zero-waste target—for example, the zero-waste think tank will examine packaging at its next meeting on 23 June.
As we roll our policy forward, we want to hear good ideas. Many were expressed in the debate and others will come from elsewhere. We will listen to them. We plan to consult on possible provisions on waste in our climate change bill, and the consultation will cover packaging.
Some members mentioned things that do not work. Although I am sympathetic to Jim Hume's suggestion that there should be a trial of waste points for excess packaging in stores, a trial that Asda undertook tended to show that consumers want to take the packaging home. Sometimes they need to do so because it shows cooking instructions or other information. The shop might not be the place where packaging should go—
Will the minister take an intervention?
No. I am in my final minute and I would like to finish. Given the way in which the Presiding Officer is looking at me, I think that I am over my final minute.
Some things do not work, but we should try lots of things and see what does work. Good ideas are welcome.
All of us are against sin and against excess packaging. It is one of those things that nobody wants to encourage. There is a need for some packaging, and we need to recognise what packaging is good, but if we reduce the amount of packaging, increase the amount of recycling and use a variety of approaches, of which the Ecodeco plant is only one, we will all contribute to the aim of a greener Scotland, and also the aim of a wealthier Scotland, because packaging is usually waste.
Meeting closed at 17:46.