Less packaging = lower costs + more goodwill

An overwhelming majority of the British would like to reduce their waste production to zero, says research service IGD. 70% is in favour of recycling all packaging, composting all organic waste and… actually eating all the food they bought.

Save up to 530 euro for a household, up to 2 billion for Wal-Mart (per year)

WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), a programme through which authorities and companies work to use materials as efficiently as possible, calculated that every British home can save up to £480 (€530) – mainly in food that is now bought just to be thrown away later.

All of this would not mean that ecology would cost retailers dearly – on the contrary: they can make a lot of money with it. Wal-Mart for example was able to save over two billion euro as a result of using less packaging. Even for a company as huge as Wal-Mart, whose profit rose over 15 billion dollar last year, this is an enormous amount of money.

Other American retailers have been following Wal-Mart’s successful example: SuperValue has decided to decrease waste production by 90% in 40 of its supermarkets. This is of course a different scale than Wal-Mart’s 4400, but it still helps. Moves like these also add to the good, green image of retailers – which in turn generates goodwill with potential future customers.

A strong incentive – and a stronger warning

Even though “green” is good, for retailers profitability is paramount – and also for consumers this is important: many Britons want to receive a compensation for the effort these measures will take, like a tax cut or a direct cash bonus. But even without this compensation, 62% of the British is “in theory” in favour of recycling – even more if the packages are picked up from each doorstep.

Moreover, 60% says they will use reusable bags in the future to go shopping, but even more important: 36% vow to boycott products with too much packaging. Suppliers will have to listen to this warning, and not only to reduce their own costs…