Resources

New insights designed to help the food and drink sector transform the food system by changing the way consumers buy fresh fruit and veg in the UK.  

This Roadmap focuses on how to achieve the target of collecting 90% of glass packaging for recycling in the UK by 2030, with a focus on remelt. It recognises the importance of not only increasing the quantity of glass collected but also the quality – as this impacts the ability to remelt back into glass containers – and that the collection scheme design is pivotal for this. 

A new plastic bags and wrapping recycling trial service has been introduced in a select few local areas. A small number of households in selected areas across England will be able to recycle their plastic bags and wrapping from their home.

The trial will be available to a small number of residents at the start, but it will gradually expand to more residents in the selected areas over the next 2-3 years.

A summary of USA packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) developments in during 2023.

The 2022 Plastics Market Situation report updates on the amount of plastic packaging Placed On the Market (POM), collection rates, recycling rates, and provides an update on key developments over the past few years highlighting the challenges and opportunities ahead.

• Fall in plastic packaging placed on the market
• Movement away from rigid plastic packaging towards lightweight and flexible plastics in the consumer sector.  
• Domestic recycling of plastic has increased to 53%.
• Planned recycling capacity increases will be a boost but will still fall well below current levels of plastic packaging consumption.  
• Collection rates are improving for plastic packaging with more flexible plastic, rigid plastics, plastic bottles and PTTs being collected at kerbside. 

This report details a high level market study into non-mechanical recycling technologies.

Over the last decade, the circular economy has been a huge success story. In the UK it has grown by 20% between 2014 and 2019. 

While roughly equal numbers of jobs are held by men and women across the UK, only 25% of jobs in the circular economy are held by women. This understates and undervalues the role of women who frequently undertake unpaid activities such as volunteering within the sector.

In late 2022, WRAP, in conjunction with reusable packaging experts Unpackaged, brought together members of The UK Plastics Pact to deliver a series of industry roundtables. The roundtables considered the barriers and opportunities for category-focused collaboration, with the aim of driving increased uptake of reusable packaging across a selection of high impact product categories. The following report summarises the insights and recommendations gathered through this rich, industry focused series of dialogues.

The project demonstrated the potential to revolutionise waste recycling in a range of countries taking AI technology used in Europe,  and using it in the developing world.

Indian company Dalmia, working in partnership with Interface, aimed to demonstrate that through mechanical recycling, single-use plastic waste, destined for landfill or incineration, could be turned in to high value applications such as injection moulded car components and packaging. 

New legislation in Chile to ban single use plastics has led to the food service industry seeking alternatives.  

This project trialled and tested consumer attitudes and market appetite for a compostable sachet and pipet.