MYGroup has further consolidated its commitment to transforming the UK’s waste management and recycling landscape by signing up to the UK Plastics Pact and Courtauld Commitment 2030 food system voluntary agreements managed by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
The move follows the company joining Textiles 2030 last month, meaning MYGroup is now one of few organisations associated with all three of WRAP’s voluntary agreements.
WRAP’s voluntary agreements bring together policymakers, businesses, local authorities and other stakeholders to help reduce the end-to-end environmental impacts of waste in three key sectors of production and consumption – food, textiles and plastic packaging.
The UK Plastics Pact focuses on reducing the environmental impact of plastic packaging through collective efforts to eliminate problem plastics, increase recyclability and enhance the use of recycled materials. The Courtauld Commitment 2030 aims to reduce food waste, lower greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable water management across the UK’s food and drink sector. Textiles 2030 aims to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water footprints of textiles used in the UK through circularity.
Now across all three voluntary agreements, MYGroup will report annually on its operational progress and recycling throughput, providing valuable data that contributes to the overall goals of WRAP’s objectives. Additionally, MYGroup will sit on various working groups, where it will share best practices and contribute to policy and regulatory developments, as well as seek to collaborate with other signatories on projects and trials.
MYGroup’s decision to join all three of WRAP’s flagship voluntary agreements reflects our commitment to shaping the future of waste management in the UK. By engaging across plastics, food and textiles, MYGroup is well-positioned to influence industry standards, participate in high-level collaborations and contribute to the development of policies that drive effective waste reduction and recycling.
Steve Carrie, Group Director, MYGroup
We are delighted to welcome MYGroup to both the UK Plastics Pact and Courtauld 2030. The recycling sector has a critical role to play in transforming the food, plastics and textiles systems, and achieve the targets of our voluntary agreements. Innovation is key, particularly as we reach the hard yards, and we are excited to see the collaborative actions of MYGroup to mitigate the huge environmental impact of the food system and mitigate against the plastic problem alongside our other members.
Helen Bird, Head of Material Systems Transformation, WRAP
MYGroup’s alignment with WRAP’s plastics and food waste objectives is already visible in its ongoing projects, which are underpinned by a mission to ‘recycle the unrecyclable’. In the plastics sector, recent take-back schemes with brands such as Boots, Johnson & Johnson and Harrods have successfully diverted over 250 tonnes of plastic waste from landfill or incineration. This is equivalent to the weight of more than 40 African elephants and includes waste from cosmetics, healthcare, beauty and wellness packaging, including blister packs. While in the food waste space, the company has announced several innovation partnerships and successes in the last year, including with The Hut Group, Fera Science and the Biorenewables Development Centre.
