Sustainability

Our Vision:

A thriving and sustainable food and drink industry that acts responsibly for the benefit of society and the environment. Our Ambition: As Scotland's largest manufacturing sector we will lead on collaborative transformations within the food and drink supply chain that enhance productivity and deliver environmental and social benefits to ensure safe, nutritious, affordable and sustainable food for all.

Our Ambition:

As the UK's largest manufacturing sector, we will lead on collaborative transformations within the food and drink supply chain that enhance productivity and deliver environmental and social benefits to ensure safe, nutritious, affordable and sustainable food for all.

View Ambition 2025

Packaging

Packaging plays an integral role in the food and drink sector across the supply chain. Packaging prevents food waste by prolonging shelf-life and protecting the product inside.

FDF fully recognises that more needs to be done to reduce litter and marine pollution and drive up recycling across all materials, including plastics. We, and our members, are proud to be a founding signatory of the UK Plastics Pact which has 4 targets to achieve by 2025:

100% of plastic packaging will be recyclable or compostable
70% of packaging will be recycled
Eliminate unnecessary single use plastics
30% recycled content in packaging

Deposit return on drinks containers – The Scottish Government is scoping a system to introduce a charge on drinks containers that can be refunded when the consumer recycles the container.

FDF recognises that increasing recycling levels at both kerbside and on-the-go are important to tackle litter and increase recycling rates.

We believe this is best done by looking at the current recycling system holistically, given the many interdependencies and complexities. Single interventions such as a Scottish DRS need to be considered alongside reform of the current UK producer responsibility system for packaging. We are working with both Scottish and UK governments on these issues.

Our members are at the forefront of a number of other initiatives which are driving up recycling for example; Metal Matters and Every Can Counts.