Soft plastics include items such as crisp packets, supermarket shopping bags, the film that covers fruit and vegetables and bread bags.
The investigation saw 40 Apple AirTag trackers put into bundles of soft plastics and placed in the collection points at Sainsbury’s and Tesco stores across England.
The investigation found that none of the trackers were “closed-loop recycled”.
70% of the soft plastics that reached a known final waste facility destination were burnt, and the remaining 30% were “downcycled” into lower value products (such as bin bags, carrier bags and composite timber boards).
80% of the downcycling happened abroad – mostly in Türkiye.
Everyday Plastic has said that research shows that people often produce more waste when they think it will be recycled. The report concluded that Sainsbury’s and Tesco might be inadvertently encouraging an increased use of soft plastics by offering instore “recycling”.
It noted that UK infrastructure only has the capacity to recycle just over one-quarter of soft plastic placed on the market and that only a small amount of this capacity will likely be allocated for post-consumer plastic film (i.e. soft plastic packaging).
The campaign said it fears recycling targets likely be missed and delayed, all while data shows an increased level of soft plastic packaging on UK shelves.
Since the release of the report, the industry have commented on its findings and the state of soft plastic recycling in the UK. See the letsrecycle.com coverage here.
Calls for action from government and supermarkets
As a result of the investigation, campaigners are asking for the UK government to be “bold and ambitious” at the Global Plastic Treaty negotiations.
The report issued calls for the government to set both legally binding targets to reduce single-use plastic packaging by weight and by unit, and legally binding reuse packaging targets (of which there are currently none).
Other calls included:
- A ban on all exports of UK plastic waste by 2027.
- Remove plastic packaging from unprocessed fruit and vegetables by 2030.
- Introduce an immediate moratorium on new incineration and energy-from-waste capacity across the UK.
- Prevent the uptake of chemical recycling as a treatment option for plastic, including packaging.
Campaigners have asked supermarkets to significantly reduce their use of single-use non-essential packaging, which includes soft plastic packaging.
Alongside this, the report issued calls for supermarkets to stop exporting collected soft plastic packaging waste and for more transparency around the challenges presented by soft plastic packaging.
Legal briefing on misleading messaging on recyclability of soft plastics
An accompanying legal briefing to the report argued that supermarkets are misleading consumers about the environmental impact of soft plastic packaging, in breach of consumer protection law.
Published by environmental law NGO ClientEarth, the briefing has issued calls for the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to intervene to ensure that plastic recycling claims are truthful and accurate, consider the full lifecycle and communicate that plastic packaging has an overall negative impact on the environment.
It also called for the upcoming extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme to include guidance on the assessment of recyclability and sufficient safeguards to prevent plastic packaging without viable end markets or recycling capacity (i.e. soft plastics) from being advertised as recyclable.
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