Review of the Waste Prevention Programme for England 2013: Summary report

The Waste Prevention Programme for England, ‘Prevention is better than cure: The role of waste prevention in moving to a more resource efficient, circular economy’,  aims to:

• encourage businesses to contribute to a more sustainable economy by building waste reduction into design, offering alternative business models and delivering new and improved products and services;
• encourage a culture of valuing resources by making it easier for people and businesses to find out how to reduce their waste, to use products for longer, repair broken items, and enable reuse of items by others;
• help businesses recognise and act upon potential savings through better resource efficiency and preventing waste, to realise opportunities for growth; and
• support action by central and local government, businesses and civil society to capitalise on these opportunities.

The evidence available indicates that at least 387,000 tonnes of waste have been prevented in total since 2013 as a result of actions taken by organisations collaborating with Government, including approximately 103,000 tonnes that would not have been prevented in the absence of Government’s intervention.

It is projected that actions currently being taken in the context of the Courtauld 2025 agreement will have prevented a further 2.7 million tonnes of waste by end-2019 from 2015, including 624,000 tonnes that would not have been prevented in the absence of the agreement.

Please note that subsequent to this review, WRAP published the Courtauld 2025 progress report, detailing reductions in food waste and greenhouse gas emissions 2015-18 showing that waste reductions are in line with the Courtauld 2025 ambition.