Five of the UK’s largest branded manufacturers – Mars UK, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever – have come together to form a £1m fund aimed at making it easier and more viable to recycle the flexible plastic found on many products in supermarkets.
The Flexible Plastic Fund is being led by producer compliance scheme, Ecosurety, with support from the environmental charity, Hubbub. In collaboration with manufacturers, retailers and recyclers, the Fund intends to improve flexible plastic recycling and reduce plastic pollution by giving the material a stable value.
This will in turn increase the supply of recycled plastic, enabling the industry to become more ‘circular’ and meet the forthcoming UK plastic packaging tax obligations. It is hoped this will generate investment in much-needed infrastructure to make flexible plastic recycling a financially sustainable system.
Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have already signed up to support the initiative by hosting flexible plastic collection points in selected stores across the UK. Several other major retailers are set to follow suit. As a result, recycling this material is expected to become increasingly accessible to consumers at a time when household collection of flexible plastics is limited.
Flexible plastics include plastic bags, wrappers, films, pouches, packets and sachets. The Fund will guarantee a minimum value of £100 per tonne of recycled product to incentivise recyclers to process flexible plastic. The recycled plastic can be turned into a range of products including non-food grade plastic, non-food-grade film and food-grade film.
The long-term ambition of the Fund is to drive progress towards creating a circular, UK-based flexible plastic recycling market that allows flexible plastic recycling via household collections.
The Fund is calling for more recyclers, manufacturers and retailers to get involved in the scheme via its website.
Robbie Staniforth Head of Innovation and Policy at Ecosurety said: “Historically the UK recycling system has not provided enough motivation to recycle flexible plastics. By creating a sustainable market for this material, longer term improvements can be made to ensure the flexible plastic that remains necessary for packaging is reliably recycled and eventually contributes to a circular economy, thereby tackling plastic pollution.
“We hope that by boosting this infrastructure, government and local authorities will be motivated to quickly facilitate flexible plastic recycling in the UK by making it easy for consumers to recycle via household collections in the future.”
Louise Stigant, UK Managing Director at Mondelēz International, commented: “Increasing the recyclability of our products and creating a circular economy so our packaging stays within the economy and not the environment is a priority for us.
“The Flexible Plastics Fund is an important step to ensuring packaging is collected, sorted and recycled in the UK. Meaningful change can only come when everyone collaborates, from companies, governments, waste management organisations to consumers.”
Claire Hughes, Director of Production, Packaging & Innovation at Sainsbury’s, added: “Joining the Fund will give our customers access to a flexible plastic recycling system that we can all have confidence in. As part of our commitment to reduce plastic packaging by 50% by 2025 across the Sainsbury’s business, we’re dedicated to working with our suppliers, manufacturers and third-party organisations to continue exploring innovative ways to support a circular economy and to make it as easy as possible for our customers to recycle.”
