Liberal Democrats at Essex County Council have backed proposals to deal with excess packaging of goods, which include giving consumers the right to send their packaging back to the manufacturers. The proposals were part of a bill presented to the House of Commons by Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson.

Speaking about the proposals, Liberal Democrat spokesman on waste at Essex County Council, Cllr Ian Gale, said:

"The plans set out in this bill are sensible and very welcome and will do much to reduce the amount of packaging that fills our supermarket and shop shelves. To continue to allow manufacturers to excessively package up goods without any compulsory limit makes no economic or environment sense."

The bill includes plans to establish a national body to promote and enforce packaging reduction, binding targets for packaging reduction in place of existing voluntary targets as well as power given to consumers to leave packaging in supermarkets for disposal. Cllr Gale continued:

"I'm sure that people will be horrified to learn that the average family now spends £470 a year on packaging; and even more horrified to learn that they also pay the cost of disposing of that packaging. Only last week, the Local Government Association announced that council tax payers face fines of billions of pounds in landfill taxes if we fail to reduce the amount of waste thrown in landfill. Consumers pay three times over for excess packaging - the cost of the packaging at the checkout, increased council tax and landfill taxes, and the environment cost of more waste going to landfill for years to come."