PLASTIC resource efficiency and recycling charity, RECOUP, has published its annual UK Household Plastic Packaging Collection Survey, which has outlined the ‘monumental’ scale of the challenge ahead.
The organisation said that while there have been ‘incremental’ improvements across the board for kerbside service provision for plastic packaging, the scale to include other formats in collection services in a relatively short timescale is ‘unprecedented’, but one that is ‘entirely achievable with the right drive, funding, planning and leadership’.
With all UK local authorities collecting plastic bottles as part of their kerbside service in 2019, local authorities providing kerbside service provision for plastic pots, tubs and trays increased from 88% to 89% and 12% to 14% for plastic films and flexibles, the first increase after six consecutive years of decline.
RECOUP said effective communications are an essential part of the process, and whilst local authorities are making significant efforts – 60% reporting they have an ongoing or continuous citizen communication campaign about plastic packaging recycling – packaging EPR funding needs to strengthen the resources to delivery these campaigns.
While Simpler Recycling in England and similar approaches in other nations will provide consistency of what can be placed for recycling, the 2024 Survey found there is a ‘comprehensive inconsistency’ in messaging across the UK, both in the language used and instructions given.
For example, when looking at plastic bottle lids, 40% of local authorities ask for citizens to leave lids on bottles but 13% ask for them to be left off. 12% listed lids as separate target items, however, did not specify if they should be left on the bottle or not, 5% said that they can be either on or off the bottle, and the remaining 30% do not provide any guidance.
54% of local authorities ask for plastic bottles to be flattened or squashed, but with a DRS planned to be implemented in October 2027, RECOUP fears this message might cause confusion as it is likely plastic bottles shouldn’t be presented in this way in a deposit return system.
Steve Morgan, head of policy & infrastructure at RECOUP, said, “Whereas the different instructions need to reflect local sorting and processing requirements, it’s in the benefits of consumers and all stakeholders to have simple, consistent national communications messages about how to present plastics for recycling. Packaging EPR and Deposit Return Schemes, through their respective scheme administrator and deposit management organisation leadership, should build on the requirements of Simpler Recycling and provide the foundations and influence to enable one unified core set of messages about how to recycle.”
