The boom in the UK's packaged sandwich industry is resulting in an accompanying surge in packaging waste, according to a new analysis from environmental charity Hubbub.

The so-called 'lunch on the go' sector has been one of the biggest success stories for the UK food and hospitality industry over the past decade, creating powerful new brands such as Pret and Eat and generating millions of pounds of revenue for established supermarkets and coffee chains.

However, environmental campaigners have long argued that it is also a contributory factor to the UK's relatively poor recycling rates, creating tonnes of packaging waste every day, much of which is not recyclable.

Today, environmental charity has released the results of new research based on an analysis of 1,200 full and part time workers, which suggests British workers' 'lunch on the go' habit is generating 10.7 billion items of packaging waste annually - or 276 items per person.

Nearly two thirds of respondents said they buy lunch on the go more often than they did a decade ago, and when they do they use an average of four packaging items. Three quarters pick up a main item that is packaged, 70 per cent purchase a packet of snacks, and 65 per cent routinely take a napkin.

To help tackle the resulting packaging waste mountain Hubbub is today launching a new campaign, #FoodSavvy Lunch Club, which will see it work with Norfolk and Suffolk Councils to encourage people to take simple steps that can curb the amount of waste associated with their lunch.

The campaign was trialled in March 2019 in East Anglia with businesses Aviva, AXA, Environment Agency and BT, challenging a total of 50 employees to go for a month without using any single use packaging at lunch time.

The two pronged campaign saw participants provided with a three-week meal plan to make their own meals, while businesses and local eateries were also invited to take part in a pilot reusable packaging scheme, Take Away, Give Back, where people received a small incentive for bringing their own packaging. 

"'Lunch-on-the-go' items create huge levels of waste and unfortunately much of this isn't recyclable as it's made from mixed materials or isn't recycled due to contamination from food residue," said Trewin Restorick, CEO of Hubbub. "By planning lunches in advance and using up items in your fridge you can massively reduce the amount of packaging you use while saving money by cutting down on food waste - in the UK we could save £58m a day just by making our own lunches."

He added that people who do buy lunch on the go should not be "shy" and should take along their own container to try and reduce packaging waste.

"We'd encourage anyone wanting to get involved in the campaign to visit the Food Savvy website and we'd love more businesses to take on the challenge too," he said.