How many tins, cartons and plastic pouches did you throw away when you made last night’s dinner? How much bubble wrap, foam or polystyrene protection came through your door uninvited with your latest internet order? Chances are, there might be quite a lot.
According to Defra, each year over 10m tonnes of packaging are placed on the UK market, with about half ending up in households. While 67% was recycled or recovered in 2011 (compared to 27% in 1998), there is still a long way to go in combating the unwieldy amount of packaging globally.
Share your pictures
We want to know how much packaging waste you’re encountering everyday and would like you to send us pictures of the stuff. It can be as outrageous as the extravagant, polstyrene-filled, cardboard box that accompanied your new book or as moderate as the foil wrapper covering your chocolate bar. Or perhaps you’ve found your own way to sustainably pack your lunch or have come across a great piece of packaging innovation that you’d like to share.
To join in, just click on the blue ‘contribute’ button or download the free GuardianWitness app for your smartphone. All photos must be your own, if it they’re not, we can’t feature them in our coverage on the Guardian website.
- GuardianWitness is the home of user-generated content on the Guardian. Contribute your video, pictures and stories, and browse news, reviews and creations submitted by others. Posts will be reviewed prior to publication on GuardianWitness, and the best pieces will feature on the Guardian site.
The circular economy hub is funded by Philips. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.
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