Boosting bread bag recycling: Hovis teams up with TerraCycle in UK
21 Feb 2019 --- British bakery brand Hovis is partnering with recycling experts TerraCycle to boost the recycling rates of bread bags of all brand sold in the UK. Although in theory bread bags are recyclable, there are a number of barriers that prevent them from being recycled at a national level, Stephen Clarke of TerraCycle, tells PackagingInsights. Not all local authorities in the UK recycle them, and there is a limited number of collection points and the bag's light weight can be problematic for councils seeking to collect them at scale.
All Hovis bread bags are 100 percent recyclable through plastic bag collection points at most major retailers’ stores and recently, the company also started rolling out clearer recycling labels on packs to encourage consumers to dispose of their bread bags correctly. Yet despite these moves, research commissioned by Hovis suggests that a third of people continue to find recycling challenging as they are unsure of what they can recycle.
“Bread packaging is mainly low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The light weight makes it a problem for councils in terms of collecting at scale as well as the low-cost value of the resulting recycled material in relation to the collection, sorting and processing costs. This is why bread packaging isn’t already recycled at a national level. By partnering with Hovis, we can now make the economics work to be able to recycle bread packaging,” Clarke tells PackagingInsights.
“While in theory, supermarket carrier bag recycling collections will accept bread packaging, it’s not always easy to find a collection point that will take them. The Bread Bag Recycling Programme has been launched to make it easier for anyone who wants to recycle bread packaging of any brand,” Clarke adds.
Disparity across local authorities in what is accepted for recycling can be a large source of confusion for consumers who want to recycle more efficiently. However, within the UK’s Resource and Waste Strategy government consultations that launched this week, there is attention being paid to streamlining the process.
“There is a significant need for much more consistency in collective rounds and communications because, at the moment, you can go from one local authority area to another and find a completely different recycling system which massively confuses the public,” Trewin Restorick, Founder and CEO of environmental sustainability charity Hubbub, tells PackagingInsights.
However, Restorick also notes that the packaging industry has a large part to play in increasing recycling rates, not just the recycling industry.
“[The industry] needs to look at creating packaging which is simpler in many ways and uses fewer types of polymers so that it is easier to recycle. The industry also needs to cut down on excessive packaging. The public needs to do its bit as well, but at the moment I’m not surprised that the public is not reacting because the messaging is very confusing and there’s certainly no strong overall narrative to follow.”
TerraCycle’s growing partnerships
In 2019, it will be increasingly important for FMCG companies and suppliers to work with recycling organizations to establish functional circular economies which minimize waste.
It was announced at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos last month that TerraCycle was set to launch a first-of-its-kind reusable packaging home delivery service in partnership with a host of leading global brands.
The Loop program is a global packaging and shopping circular solution which aims to offer improved environmental performance compared to current e-commerce solutions. The basic premise of the initiative is that consumers will order their product, receive it via shipping then after use it will be picked up at their homes. The products are then cleaned, refilled and either reused or recycled. Available products range from detergent and toothbrushes to ice-cream and peanut butter. The platform will launch in Paris and New York in the spring of 2019.
TerraCycle has also partnered with a range of companies to solve their recycling issues with “difficult” products, including oral care products from Colgate, contact lenses from Johnson & Johnson and Pringles from Kellogg’s.
By Laxmi Haigh
