Impact

Since 2005, our UK food waste voluntary agreement, the Courtauld Commitment, has catalysed action in food waste manufacturing, retail and households leading to food waste in the UK falling by over 10%. That’s nearly 1 million tonnes of food saved.

Discover how our ground-breaking research into the removal of plastic packaging from fruit and veg, a simple change to date labels and correct storage advice for citizens is catalysing industry action that could significantly reduce household food waste in the UK.

Over 360 food and drink organisations have signed up to our Food Waste Reduction Roadmap. And between 2007 and 2021 supply chain food waste has fallen by 20.7%.

WRAP’s work with UK food businesses and redistribution organisations has meant that between 2015 and 2018, approximately 170,000 tonnes of surplus food was received by redistribution organisations, equating to 400 million meals with a value of more than £590 million.

For almost 20 years, WRAP has been working on solutions to the harm caused by problematic plastic packaging - from our pioneering work on recycled plastic in bottles in 2004, closing the loop on plastic milk bottle recycling in 2005 to launching The UK Plastics Pact with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2018.

Global action to prevent problem plastics

Our global network of Plastics Pacts are driving large-scale impact, eliminating billions of problematic plastics, improving reusability and recyclability by 23%, and boosting recycled content in packaging by 44%.

UK Plastics Pact members are responsible for over 75% of all consumer plastic packaging placed on the market in the UK. Between 2018 and 2022, members of the Pact have removed 730 million single use plastic items from circulation.

With funding provided by Innovate UK, WRAP worked with in-country partners to distribute funding and share expertise to accelerate innovation to tackle the plastic pollution crisis in India, Chile, South Africa, Kenya, Mexico, and Colombia.

62% of the UK clothing market is now signed up to ambitious targets under Textiles 2030. Together they are taking action in the areas of designing for recyclability, circular business models, closing the loop on materials and encouraging behaviour change.

WRAP’s work on durability has been pioneering over the last decade. Through our Clothing Longevity Protocol and our collaboration with the Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC) on the Durability Research Project as part of Textiles 2030, we have transformed the fashion industry's approach to product design.

90 pioneering brands, retailers, re-use, and recycling organisations, academics and innovators who were part of WRAP’s Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP 2012-2020) together achieved a 21.6% reduction in carbon and 18.2% reduction in water.

ECAP was one of the first EU LIFE funded projects to address clothing sustainability across the entire supply chain. Through the project, 834,000 tonnes of CO2e and 50 million m3 of water were saved, along with 4,670 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill.

Wales now rank second highest in the world for their recycling rates. Together, we have avoided hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste, whilst generating hundreds of new, sustainable jobs.

Through WRAP’s Recycling Tracker, we know that 88% of UK households regularly recycle. Find out how we are changing citizen behaviour to drive up recycling rates through our Recycle Now and Be Mighty campaigns.

WRAP’s collection options modelling helped officers from N.E. Lincolnshire Council change to an alternate week collection which resulted in an 18% reduction in residual waste alongside a 50% increase in dry recycling.

With the fund provided by Defra, WRAP distributed £18 million proving, expert support across 296 organisations in the areas of food, plastics, textiles and waste infrastructure helping divert over 180,871 tonnes of waste which is estimated to avoid over 395,228 tonnes of CO2e emissions.