FlexCollect: Blueprint for Recycling Flexible Plastics Launched
Published:
Three years of pilots confirm collecting flexible plastic for recycling is affordable, scalable and backed by consumers.
We believe that partnerships and collaboration across the full value chain is needed to tackle the biggest challenges we face to create a waste-free world.
That’s why alongside four of the UK’s other largest branded manufacturers: Mars UK, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, and PepsiCo, and working with environmental compliance scheme, EcoSurety, we founded the Flexible Plastic Fund (FPF), a cross-industry collaboration to drive flexible plastic collection and recycling in the UK, so it can be re-used again and again.
Creating a viable circular economy is more challenging for some materials, including flexible plastics, such as laundry pouches, sauce sachets, wipes packets, and laundry and homecare bottle sleeves. The unique properties of flexible plastics mean they can get stuck in or clog up recycling machinery.
The FlexCollect project, set up in 2022, aimed to trial kerbside collections and understand how best to collect, sort and recycle flexible plastic packaging. The final report and blueprint has detailed for the first time how flexible plastics can be cost-effectively collected and recycled, providing essential data insights and practical guidance ahead of the roll out of mandatory flexible plastic collections from kerbside in 2027.
‘The future of recycling flexible plastic packaging in the UK’ is the result of a three-year project which piloted different collection and processing methods for flexible plastics across 10 local authorities and 160,000 households across England, in the largest trial of its kind in the UK to date. The project collected over 400 tonnes of flexible plastics (equivalent to over 50 million bread bags), with data suggesting that more than 150,000 tonnes of FPP could be collected annually, once the UK government’s Simpler Recycling policy is fully implemented from 2027.
The report sets out a clear blueprint for adding flexible plastic packaging to existing household recycling - showing that this can be effectively collected and sorted, and high recovery rates can be achieved, with end markets for the recycled material.
Key findings from the landmark trial revealed that collection of flexible plastics was relatively straightforward if done with other local authority recycling activities. Householders in the trial were happy to add flexibles to brightly coloured bags (which could be easily spotted at material recovery facilities and collected without impacting their operations) and reported an 89% satisfaction rate with the new system. Once collected and sorted, the flexible plastic was recycled into flexible plastic products, such as plastic bags, or plastic timber products, such as fences and benches.
Whilst the report showcases that high recovery rates can be achieved in the UK, there is a clear recycling infrastructure challenge. The blueprint provides a clear signal to accelerate investment in UK-based reprocessing capacity and develop robust end markets for recycled flexible plastic packaging.
Launched at the Houses of Parliament, at an event sponsored by Amanda Hack MP and attended by Mary Creagh CBE MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Nature), it marks a milestone moment in tackling one of the country’s biggest recycling challenges.
Amanda Hack MP
Severine Mongauze, Unilever’s Senior Plastic Sustainability Manager, who has been closely involved in the project from its inception, commented:
“The FlexCollect trial fully aligned with Unilever’s commitment to a circular economy and our work to keep plastic packaging - including sachets, wrappers and pouches - in the economy and out of the environment.
“Collaboration across the value chain was essential and working together with retailers, recyclers and local authorities meant solutions for collecting, sorting and recycling flexible plastics could be trialled and scaled, in different real-life situations, on the ground.
“We’re really pleased that FlexCollect has shown kerbside collection is viable and cost effective for local authorities. But it’s also clear there’s a recycling infrastructure challenge in the UK, and that investment in reprocessing capacity and development of end markets is needed.
“We’ll be continuing to work in collaboration with the Flexible Plastic Fund on the next phase, looking at what it will take to recycle flexible plastics, at scale, in the UK.”
About FPF FlexCollect
Launched in 2022, the FPF FlexCollect project was a series of pilots collecting flexible plastic packaging from households via kerbside collections in ten local authorities. A total of ten local authorities participated in the project: Cheltenham Borough Council, South Gloucestershire Council, Maldon District Council, Somerset Council, Bracknell Forest Council, Newcastle City Council, Reading Borough Council, North Herts Council and Warwick District Council.
The project has been voluntarily funded by the Flexible Plastic Fund (FPF) members, Defra, and UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge. It has been delivered by SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK, Ecosurety, RECOUP, WRAP and Zero Waste Scotland.
