On 14 November, North Herts council joined the pilot project, enabling over 2,200 households across Knebworth to collect and recycle flexible plastic bags, sachets, packets and wrapping as part of their regular kerbside recycling collections.
The pilot in Reading, managed in partnership with re3, began on 18 September with over 4,000 households and flats in the town centre.
With the addition of these two new local authorities, there are now seven local authorities and over 28,000 households across the UK participating in the FPF FlexCollect pilot.
Trial
Paid for by the £2.9m Flexible Plastic Fund set up by the EcoSurety packaging waste compliance scheme, FlexCollect began in 2022 and will run until 2025. The project is now almost halfway through the project timeline and key findings in an interim report will shortly be released.
FlexCollect is a £3m pilot to collect and recycle flexible plastic packaging from households in the UK. The project benefits from the cross-industry expertise of leading industry and government partners, including Defra, Ecosurety, UK Research and Innovation Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, Suez recycling and recovery UK, RECOUP, LARAC, WRAP and Zero Waste Scotland.
The other local authorities that are already part of the project include Cheltenham borough council, South Gloucestershire council, Maldon district council, Somerset council and Newcastle city council.
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 for the industry to become more ‘circular’. This will motivate investment in much-needed jobs and infrastructure to make flexible plastic recycling a financially sustainable system in the UK.
Collections
In light of the Prime Minister’s recent announcement concerning ‘Simpler Recycling’, mandating film collections by 2027, “it’s even more important that local authorities understand how flexible plastics can be best integrated into current household recycling collections, and what ‘efficient and effective’ collections look like,” the organisers said. The FPF FlexCollect pilots aim to understand the challenges of recycling flexible plastics, so they can be more easily addressed once widespread implementation starts.
Councillor Amy Allen, executive member for recycling & waste at North Herts council said: “We are delighted to be part of this exciting pilot to extend what we collect from the kerbside. Although plastic bags and wrapping don’t weigh that much, they can take up lots of space in people’s bins and it’s such a shame for them not to be recycled.”
Karen Rowland, Reading borough council’s lead councillor for environmental services and community safety added: “There is no doubt that we are very excited to be a part of this trial and invite all selected households to participate and follow the provided instructions. This trial will help us understand how we can ultimately recycle the maximum amounts of plastic bags and wrapping by ensuring we develop the best methods of collection for all our residents.”
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