Big Brands Join in to Boost Flexible Plastic Recycling

UK leading brand manufacturers have joined together to collaborate on the Flexible Plastic Fund, an industry first for the UK, with the aim of making flexible plastic recycling viable for consumers and recyclers.

 

The fund totals £1m and is being led by Ecosurety, a producer compliance scheme based in the UK, and supported alongside by Hubbub, an environmental charity.

 

The brands collaborating in the project are Mars UK, Mondeléz, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever.

 

Currently, recycling of flexible packaging is not well supported, either financially or practically. However, there is evidence of consumer willingness to be able to recycle flexible plastics.

Aims for The Fund

 

The fund aims to reduce plastic pollution and make the process of recycling flexible plastic more viable, by giving it a stable value.

 

By creating a sustainable market, the lack of motivation to recycle this material will hopefully be eliminated allowing for longer-term improvements to the recycling of flexible plastic, which is still very much a necessity for a lot of packaging.

 

In addition to this, making it easier to reliably recycle this packaging will help to work towards a circular economy which is another step towards reducing plastic pollution.

 

How Does it Work?

 

Those brands that use flexible packaging invest in the Flexible Plastic Fund and retailers then host the collection points within their stores.

 

When collected, the amount is tracked and moved to an approved recycler where the plastic is made into new products.

 

Once manufactured, the products generate PRNs, or packaging recovery notes, that act like certificates. These are then paid for by the fund and passed on to the partners.

 

Head of Innovation and Policy at Ecosurety, Robbie Staniforth says; “We hope by boosting infrastructure, Government and local authorities will be motivated to facilitate flexible plastic recycling in the UK.”