Martin Tod speaks out in favour of less packaging

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 29th Sep 2007

Martin Tod, Prospective Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester, has argued that people should be able to leave unwanted packaging in the supermarket in a debate on excess packaging at Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton on Wednesday September 19th.

It's ridiculous how much extra packaging, we find today on fruit and vegetable and many packaged foods and cosmetics.

In Hampshire, much of this excess packaging goes to be incinerated and turned into greenhouse gases.

I want people to have the right to leave packaging they don't want in the shops they've bought it in, and for those shops to have to recycle it.

When people have been given the same right in other countries, it's forced retailers and manufacturers to get serious about getting rid of excess packaging. In many cases, the same products are being sold with less packaging in other countries.

I intend to continue the campaign here in Winchester. As a start, I am asking people to tell me about or send me the worst example of excess packaging that they're managed to find.

Mr Tod was a Marketing Director in a Packaged Goods company for several years and involved in several projects to reduce excess packaging.

The Liberal Democrats also backed community initiatives such as proposed voluntary moratorium on plastic bags in Alresford in the same debate.

The proposals will force supermarkets to take back unwanted packaging, as well as encourage consumers to re-use plastic bags, in order to cut the amount of waste reaching landfill.

UK households produce 26 million tonnes of waste each year, of which five million tonnes is packaging.