With environmental concerns near the top of the political, business and personal agendas, the GCA has been seeking greater clarity on what advice to give its publisher and retailer members and associate supplier members on this front, particularly with regard to cello wrap.
In pursuit of this, GCA president Ceri Stirland (customer and channel director of UKG) and Sharon Little, ceo of the GCA held a conference call with Helen Bird, the resource management specialist at WRAP, the charity body that advises Government on recycling matters, whose remit covers greeting cards.
As Ceri Stirland, the reigning president of the GCA summed up the environmental complexities: “It’s a minefield,” she said, but stressed that this makes it all the more imperative that the GCA “builds its knowledge to share with members to ensure that we as an industry do the right thing for the future of our planet and the good name of our industry. We must continue to raise the bar on the sector’s environmental credentials.”
Sharon added how it is “essential” to build the GCA’s relationship with WRAP “and harness their expertise and advice, especially as it advises Government and liaises with Councils.”
Sharon reveals how the packed agenda for the hour-long conference call between WRAP and the GCA covered cellowrapping, the diverse recycling capabilities of different councils at consumer level, the impact of flittering and foiling on the recyclability of cards as well as any likely legislation that could come into effect and impact on the greeting card industry.
“It was confirmed that while foiling on greeting cards does not impact on their recyclability at kerbside [ie at consumer level], WRAP strongly advocates that consumers should tear off any flittered portion of their cards prior to putting them in for recycling,” says Sharon.
While cellowrapping on greeting cards are currently not specifically mentioned in the UK Plastics Pact (a collaborative initiative spearheaded by WRAP including Government, NGOs, retailers and suppliers to massively reduce unavoidable plastics use), as single use plastics these are likely to come under greater scrutiny in the future, especially as the Government is looking into ‘extended producer responsibility’ regulations.
“Cellowrap, which is classed as a ‘flexible’ along with sweet and crisp wrappers and plastic bags,” Sharon added, “and while it is a completely recyclable material it is not commonly collected in kerbside collections, due to sorting/contamination issues.” It was intimated during the recent conference call with WRAP that there should be some news on that front in the autumn.
As to her own “mantra”, Ceri revealed it is: “Remove, Reduce, Replace.” Elaborating, Ceri says her belief is to “REMOVE completely any avoidable waste ie. cello bagging if possible. REDUCE if you can’t remove then reduce ie. maybe use cello bagging in everyday only and remove from seasons completely or only use if essential, such as to protect product” with the third strand “Replace” covering adopting a more environmentally-friendly option, be it moving to a better substrate or method of affixing the card to the envelope.”
With the dialogue now instigated between WRAP and the GCA, further work is already underway helping the industry to steer a course on these issues.
