FCDO Goods in Kind Packaging Specifications - HSOT

Content

The Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team (HSOT) is a UKAID funded programme operated by Palladium.

This document was generated from the HSOT specifications for the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s core relief items (CRIs). Those specifications are continually updated based on open-ended discussions with suppliers, collation of instances of best practice and research. This snapshot represented the specifications as they were at the time the data was pulled (02/06/2023).

HSOT’s core objective is for all plastic packaging used in FCDO CRIs to be “Essential, 100% recycled and 100% recyclable.” In addition, HSOT prioritise the removal of single-use plastic from the primary packaging of CRIs so as to eliminate insofar as is possible, single-use plastic given to beneficiaries. These current specifications represent a step on the road to achieving those goals but do not comprehensively reach them at this stage.

HSOT believe that understanding and predicting waste streams is vital to tackling residual plastic waste. To this end all specifications mandate that Resin Identification codes are clearly visible on packaging. The final section of this document is a template used to gather information from suppliers on plastic packaging by type and weight. This information can, in theory, be communicated downstream so as to assist with designing waste management solutions.