Waste

WEN has been campaigning on waste prevention for over 20 years and seen the difference consumers can make, organising the UK’s first packaging action campaign empowering shoppers to return excess packaging to the checkout in 1990. We’ve worked with community and educational organisations, local and national government and individual consumers to highlight the positive impacts of reducing waste. 

WEN initiated the Waste Minimisation Act which became law in 1998. It allows authorities to to ‘do or arrange for the doing of, anything which in its opinion is necessary or expedient for the purpose of minimising the quantities of controlled waste, or controlled waste of any description, generated in its area’. 

Shared Advantage was a project designed to show councils and communities how to work in partnership and use the Waste Minimisation Act to reduce waste. 

The Market Waste Prevention Projectat Old Spitalfields Market in East London looked at ways to green the market’s waste management. The project inspired similar activities around the country and was used as a case study for several publications. 

More From Less was a three-year project funded by the Bridge House Estates Trust Fund, focusing on waste prevention in the Greater London area. We provided sustainability information and training to local authority officers and ran waste exchange events and bottle reuse schemes in local communities.