A typical product on a supermarket shelf will have had about one hundred times its own volume of waste created before it reaches the consumer, according to Forum for the Future, an environmental charity. Meeting the demand for food, water, timber and fuel has caused a terrifying spike in the amount of waste produced around the world. The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has estimated that over half of the country's household waste comes from retail and almost 30 per cent of landfill can be traced back to the five leading supermarket chains. Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, says: "The biggest volumes of waste are in the production and creation of products. Waste causes us a series of problems, some of which are environmental, but not all.' Waste reduction has become a hot topic in the business community due to the increasing financial cost of disposing of it. Regulation is set to increase. In the past five years the cost of landfill has doubled and is set to reach