Retail has to take responsibility if we are paying to recycle its waste

The EU’s latest Packaging Waste Directive is all about consumer recycling rather than stopping the waste at source, writes Victoria White

This rubbish dump on the carpet in our sitting-room is the paper and plastic waste created by our family of six large people in one week.

I would like to say it was a particularly bad week or that the experiment was contaminated by some random dumping. All possible. But the basic fact is this: my family is a major polluter.