The initiative, developed by WRAP, was formally commenced yesterday (21 April 2026) at Sustainable Ventures, with founding signatories attending to mark the start of the programme.
According to WRAP, the Pact aims to drive coordinated action across multiple sectors to deliver a more sustainable and circular approach to packaging.
Catherine David, CEO of WRAP, commented: “The UK Packaging Pact is a unique, complete system approach to unlocking packaging transitions across the value chain.
“No other programme brings together the key players needed to deliver the enormous changes we must make.”
Expanding beyond plastics
The UK Packaging Pact is the successor to the UK Plastics Pact, expanding the lens from plastics to all commonly used packaging materials, including glass, paper, card, metals, plastics and bio-based materials.
Through pre-competitive collaboration, signatories are encouraged to reduce costs and extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees through improved design and material reduction, cut greenhouse gas emissions, prepare for evolving UK and EU regulatory requirements, and unlock opportunities for reuse systems and recycling infrastructure investment.
The Pact is structured around four interconnected goals:
- Optimise packaging: Reducing single-use formats, eliminating problematic materials and improving recyclability, while increasing recycled content
- Scaling reuse and refill: Supporting interoperable systems to increase reusable packaging
- Supporting infrastructure investment: Building evidence to accelerate investment and address system bottlenecks across collections and processing
- Harmonising data: Simplifying reporting requirements and improving traceability to enable data-driven decisions
David added: “Policies are essential, but they alone cannot deliver and the Packaging Pact will deliver the practical change necessary through a flexible framework allowing signatories to focus on the actions most important to them.
“Today, we begin to unlock progress – to reduce businesses costs – to mitigate against risks – and to prepare for the future.”
Responding to global pressures
The launch comes amid growing concern over global waste and resource pressures. The World Bank’s latest What a Waste 3.0 report warned that waste generation is rising faster than both population growth and the capacity of local systems to manage it.
On current trends, global waste could reach 3.86 billion tonnes by 2050 – a 50% increase.
At the same time, businesses are facing ongoing cost challenges linked to energy and raw materials.
The International Energy Agency has highlighted how oil price volatility is increasingly structural, driven by geopolitical instability.
As virgin plastic resin prices are closely tied to oil markets, this volatility is placing particular strain on single-use packaging models.
WRAP said the new Pact has been designed to help industry navigate this “perfect storm” of environmental and economic pressures, while accelerating progress toward circularity.
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