Despite the recent pledges by major suppliers and retailers to make their product packaging recyclable to help tackle plastic waste, new research by Which? suggests more progress is needed.
The consumer watchdog analysed 89 of the UK’s best-selling branded groceries and found only 34% had packaging that was fully recyclable in household collections. And 41% items also had no labelling to show whether it could actually be recycled.
Which? looked at 10 different categories of items including popular brands of chocolate, fizzy drinks, crisps, yoghurts, drinks, cheese, bread loaves and cereals. Each item’s packaging was broken down into its component parts, weighed and assessed whether each piece could be easily recycled.
The recyclability of different types of groceries varied hugely. The worst category by some distance was crisps, with only 3% of packaging recyclable in household collections. While significantly better than bagged snacks, Which? found 34% of cheese packaging was not easily recyclable. And among chocolate snacks, almost a third of packaging was not recyclable.
The most recyclable category was fizzy drinks, which were found to be 100% recyclable with all items Which? looked at in this category being correctly labelled with recycling information.
In a separate survey, Which? found that the recyclability of grocery packaging is important to eight in 10 respondents (79%), and two thirds (67%) often or always look for recycling info on grocery packaging before deciding how to dispose of it.
In response to Which?’s findings, some manufacturers said that food waste had a larger carbon footprint than plastic waste and claimed that moving away from traditional packaging to recyclable alternatives could lead to compromised, stale or damaged food. Some also highlighted that their packaging was recyclable at TerraCycle collection points.
However, Which? stated that the lack of consistency and varied approaches to grocery packaging shows that some manufacturers could be doing a lot more to ensure the materials used to package their products do not end up in landfill.
The use of the right materials to package food is just one part of the problem. In order to tackle unnecessary waste, Which? stressed that products also need to be correctly labelled with clear instructions of how packaging should be disposed of.
The watchdog is calling on the government to make recycling labelling simple, clear and mandatory so that all consumers are able to make informed decisions when buying groceries.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? Head of Home Products and Services, said: “Consumers are crying out for brands that take sustainability seriously and products that are easy to recycle, but for any real difference to be made to the environment, manufacturers need to maximise their use of recyclable and recycled materials and ensure products are correctly labelled.
“To reduce the waste that goes to landfill, the government must make labelling mandatory, simple and clear, enabling shoppers to know exactly how to dispose of the packaging on the products they consume.”
