OUGD601 - Context of Practice 3: Meeting Number 1 With Tony Scott

First meeting with Tony - Waste Prevention and Sustainability Manager

This morning I met with Tony Scott, who I was introduced to at the Liverpool Food Festival initially. He is the Waste Prevention and Sustainability Manager and also works with Love Food Hate Waste. I met him at Mann Island in Liverpool to just have a chat about my work and my current ideas relating to my context of practice 3. I spent a couple of hours there in total and came away with a lot more resources and little bit more of an idea of what direction to take my essay and my practical. There is still a long way to go yet and I am aware that all of my thoughts will develop a lot from now until January, but I feel it is important to allow the ideas to develop and grow, and by having this conversation today I was able to plant the seed in hope that I will have further conversations in the future with Tony and others about the final product and outcome. 

(All of the text which is highlighted I will be researching into further as soon as possible)

Notes:

- Research into packaging recovery notes

- "All resources will be brought back into the system" - Tony Scott

- Research into the Ellen MacArthur circular economy

- Mention resource efficiency in essay

- There are 9000 landfills in the UK

- "The supermarkets control what we eat" - Tony Scott

- Look into film that we can't recycle

- Look at consumer demand

- Research WRAP website as there are plenty of reports and research

- "Consumers end up getting into a habit when it comes to shopping in supermarkets, they gain trust in certain manufacturers" - Tony Scott

- "8000 more tonnes of waste expected this year" - Tony Scott

- "The most wasted product in people's bins is food" - Tony Scott

- "Don't shop when hungry!" - Tony Scott

- Research Mintel online journal

- Research Courtaulds Commitment WRAP UK

- We are currently in phase 2 of the agreements and it is a voluntary agreement with all major players being a part of it

Product/Practical Outcome:

We then started to discuss the practical element of my COP3 work. This conversation wasn't so much about the end product itself, but mainly things which we had noticed recently as being inventive and worthwhile of mentioning/researching further into.

Notes:

- We spoke about packaging reduction or reuse and Tony mentioned how it would be worth considering sleeves as opposed to boxes in some cases.

- Tony also mentioned the Lynx deodorant bottle which has just recently been manufactured, this is something which I had already looked into as it is a Unilever product. This then led to us talking about Unilever and all of their products, making comments on how amazing it would be if I was able to get a placement with them. 

-  He also informed me about how margarine and yoghurt pots are different types of plastic and they are hard to recycle and yet only a couple of pence to produce. This is something I could refer to in my essay as well. 

- By halving the size of packaging we can halve the waste as well.

- Tony suggested that I should buy the book Tescopology as well, so this is something I am going to do today and reference in my essay.

- I was also told that the shelves are paid for by the food producers. This is really interesting as it will have a considerable impact on the positioning of food products in supermarkets. 

- I told Tony that I have been thinking about the possibility of designing some packaging for bread to keep it fresh for as long as possible, but also design a package which is reusable. The idea behind this would be to encourage the consumer to recycle the packaging as well as the food. A lot of people throw their left over bread away, so I would like to inform people about the other possible uses for it, such as breadcrumbs. I explained this in quite a lot of detail but also discussed the possible set backs of this idea and the possibility that everything may have already been covered before. Therefore at the moment it is just a possible idea... Tony then suggested creating a 'bread roll' which emphasis on the roll. So it is obviously a play on words but it could roll out to reveal the product inside. 

- At Love Food Hate Waste, one thing that they really push is the idea of freezing your food rather than letting it go to waste. Tony therefore suggested that I could design a type of freezer bag to keep it fresh with the information of possible uses printed on it. 

- Love Food Hate Waste also have branded cooler bags which they give out at their events (I was given one at Liverpool Food Festival) and inside they place possible recipes for left over food as well as other things like a spaghetti measure to help reduce food waste. This idea pushed us both to discuss the potential behind creating a bag in the same format, with the silver flask inside to keep bread fresh. These were all just ideas though and were also verging on the idea of product design as opposed to packaging. Product design however, is something I seem to becoming more and more interested in. 

- Tony also mentioned the Coca Cola starch bottles. This is a case study I looked at in great detail last year on the course, but it is also very relevant for this essay too. 

- Consider the legal definition of the term 'reuse'. This is important as people perceive it in different ways and this will have a considerable impact on my essay depending on how I use the word. 

At the end of the meeting I spoke to Tony about Love Food Hate Waste a bit more. Earlier on in conversation he had mentioned that they have just signed a two year contract with Tesco. I therefore asked whether there would be any opportunity for me to pitch at idea to Tesco later down the line if it was relevant to their store or any of their food products. He responded with a definite yes as he has contacts there. I then thought to myself that I am probably putting myself under unnecessary pressure for the purpose of this module, but at the same time I would much rather put my work into practice and have it make a difference in the real world in some way, rather than it just be a conceptual product. Obviously at the moment these are all just options but I am hoping that Tony will organise for us to have a meeting again as soon as possible, and next time hopefully with Tesco!