Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate his Department has made of the quantity of excessive packaging by online retailers which is going to landfill.

The Essential Requirements Regulations already require producers to ensure that the packaging they use is the minimum to ensure safety, hygiene and meet consumer expectations. The Regulations make no distinction between online and high street retailers.

If anyone receives a product they believe to be “over packaged”, they should report it to Trading Standards who are responsible for enforcing these regulations.

As part of the recently published Resources and Waste Strategy we have committed to exploring changes to the packaging producer responsibility scheme. This will include a review of the effectiveness of the Essential Requirements Regulations.

We have not made any assessment of the amount of “excessive” packaging going to landfill.