Complex matter. Where I work we produce tonnes of food packaging every year. Mostly cardboard based but some have small clear plastic windows in them. Retailers ask us to provide recyclable alternative, which we can but they are more expensive and they always say they can't afford it. Also it seems to me that local authorities have as many methods of recycling around as there are stars in the universe. Would it not be better to rationalise and standardise the way waste is recycled so the councils all do it the same way? The worst culprits are the luxury/best of/the best food products which are frequently encased in rigid plastics, might look nice but terribly polluting. I always though incineration is a very good idea but some don't but I am not qualified to comment on the pros and cons. All the packaging we do at work is FSC and all recyclable apart from the plastic element but until retailers understand that eliminating plastics costs money and they will have to pay that cost it will be a slow process. It can be done, think of carrier bags which you now need to pay for but the supermarkets didn't half resist that. However once one has the guts to make that step others invariably follow.
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