14 Dec 2022 --- Recoup estimates that a staggering 750,000 metric tons of post-consumer plastic packaging are currently not collected for recycling. The newly launched report has found that over 600,000 metric tons of UK household plastic packaging were collected for recycling in 2021, an increase of 4% on the previous year. This is an overall collection rate of 43% for all household plastic packaging in the UK that is gathered curbside. In its new UK Household Plastic Packaging Collection Survey report, the plastic resource efficiency and recycling charity stresses this allows a huge opportunity for upcoming legislative changes to help bridge the gap between the UK’s current capture rate and what plastic packaging is placed on the market each year. “Although there are challenges to come in meeting increasing recycling and recovery targets, it’s heartening to see UK collections of plastic packaging grow, especially in the aftermath of such disruption in the last few years – be it economic, pandemic, or political,” Tom McBeth, policy and infrastructure projects manager at Recoup tells PackagingInsights.
