Some of the UK’s biggest retail names are taking on key leadership roles at non-governmental organisation (NGO) Wrap, as the organisation selects chairs to lead five expert groups supporting its new UK Packaging Pact.
The ten-year programme, launched in April, aims to transform the UK’s packaging system by helping businesses tackle complex packaging challenges, reduce costs, shape and implement policy, and accelerate the move towards circular packaging across multiple sectors.
The new industry expert group chairs include Tesco’s head of packaging & food waste strategies James Bull, who will lead the ‘Scale Reuse and Refill’ group, and Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) head of packaging Clare Edgar, who will chair the ‘Harmonising Data’ group.
They will be joined by Jamie Riley, head of sustainability at Robinson Packaging, who will chair ‘Optimising Packaging’; Stuart Hayward-Higham, chief technical development & innovation officer at Suez Recycling & Recovery UK, who will oversee ‘Circular Infrastructure Investment’; and Brian Lodge, director of packaging at the British Plastics Federation, who will chair ‘Films and Flexibles’.
Helen Bird, head of packaging at Wrap, said the chairs would provide “essential steer” across the priority workstreams of the Packaging Pact.
She added that their role would be key to keeping the initiative moving “at pace”, while ensuring its action plans complement existing initiatives and meet industry needs.
The five groups will meet over the coming months to agree workplans, establish task and finish groups, and develop high-level roadmaps for each of Packaging Pact goal. Each chair will also sit on the UK Packaging Pact Advisory Board, providing governance alongside Wrap’s secretariat.
For the retail sector, the focus areas include some of the industry’s most pressing packaging challenges.
The Optimising Packaging group will look at reducing unnecessary packaging, designing for recycling, increasing recycled content, removing problematic materials and exploring emerging recycling technologies.
Meanwhile, Bull’s Scale Reuse and Refill group will focus on developing reusable packaging systems that can work at scale for both businesses and consumers.
Bull said industry collaboration would be critical to achieving meaningful progress on reuse, adding that the group would help lay the foundations for a transition towards more circular packaging models.
Edgar said harmonising data would be equally important, arguing that simpler reporting and greater transparency could support better packaging decisions across the value chain.
The Packaging Pact also expands the scope of Wrap’s previous UK Plastics Pact, bringing together stakeholders across all major packaging materials, including glass, paper, card, metal, plastics and biobased materials.
Its membership spans retailers, manufacturers, packaging companies, waste and recycling businesses, trade bodies and technology providers, including Tesco, M&S, Asda, Lidl, Ocado Retail, Waitrose, Suez, Veolia, Biffa, the British Plastics Federation and the Food & Drink Federation.
Wrap said work is already progressing on several priorities, including an updated films and flexibles strategy, design guidance, engagement with HMRC on the Plastic Packaging Tax and a plastics infrastructure report due later this year.
With the new expert groups now being established, the pact is moving into a delivery-focused phase, with industry collaboration at its centre.
[image credit: Green Retail World]
