Exploring packaging alternatives …

Business leaders in Cumbria have been empowered with information on ways of reducing the cost of packaging and the effects of packaging on the environment.

This was done at a special one-day seminar where they were also educated on the present legislation besides exploring ways and means of reducing packaging as well as the use of recycled materials.

The workshop was organised by two Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency programmes namely Cumbria Business Environment Network and Distinctly Cumbrian.

Ian Winchester of Distinctly Cumbrian affirmed that packaging was a huge expense for business enterprises and that many Cumbrian firms wanted to cut these expenses besides lowering the negative effects of packaging materials on the environment. He pointed out that the event had shed light on the legal requirements and that a lot of possible solutions had been explored. Ian Winchester added that numerous proposals on designing new packaging for the foreseeable future had been put forward.

Jane Maggs of Wild and Fruitful was one of the beneficiaries of the workshop whose venue was at Redhills, close to Penrith. She admitted that she had been using bulky non-environment friendly packaging and that the workshop has imparted in her new ideas to experiment with.

The first speakers to take to the podium were two environmental officers from the Environment Agency at Penrith, Amanda Cruddas and Steve Johnston. They enlightened their audience on the present packaging rules and regulations affecting business enterprises, especially how the obligations for firms are calculated and how targets for recovery of materials are laid down.

Mark Hilton, of Envirowise, then gave tips on ways of ensuring that packaging served its intended purpose well whilst ensuring that its impact and costs to the environment were kept to a minimum.