Packaging to foot cost of government 'fixation' with carbon footprints

packagingnews.co.uk: "Government's obsession with carbon footprinting could add a huge cost burden for UK packaging at a time when it can least afford it, experts have warned."

Defra and the Carbon Trust, meanwhile, have published details of PAS 2050, the carbon footprint labelling scheme for products which could force packaging companies and supermarkets to calculate the carbon footprint of every product.

A third government initiative, Defra’s Packaging Policy for England, is likely to include some emphasis on carbon footprints analysis. However, its author, head of branch of Defra’s producer responsibility team Judicaelle Hammond, has told Packaging News that it will not proscribe purely carbon-based measurements in the near future.

Although the exact implications of the Climate Change Bill and the Packaging Policy for England are so far unclear and PAS 2050 is a voluntary scheme, experts predicted that pressure on packaging firms to measure their carbon footprints was likely to grow.

He added that the proposed requirement of PAS 2050 to renew the label every two years would be an "unacceptable" cost to packaging businesses. 

Incpen director Jane Bickerstaffe added that purely looking at carbon measurements was a potentially dangerous.

"Carbon measurements are a useful tool but it’s just one measurement," she said. "We are becoming so fixated with carbon that we are going to miss the next big thing, which will be water footprints."