Circular’s Peter Taylor-Whiffen asks what’s the cure for the soft plastics problem, and examines if supermarkets are helping or hindering potential solutions.
Soft plastics contain a notoriously hard truth: they’re difficult to recycle. It’s no good pretending otherwise.
That’s been a harsh lesson for Britain’s supermarkets, which found themselves in the headlines after an investigation revealed what they really did with materials they invited their customers to bring back for recycling.
As reported recently in Circular Online and the wider press, an investigation by campaign group Everyday Plastic and the Environmental Investigation Agency found that, of the plastic packaging collected by Sainsbury’s and Tesco in a take-back recycling scheme, 70% that reached a known destination was actually incinerated.
This wasn’t exactly a shock to the researchers (nor will it be to many readers of Circular) – because recycling soft plastics has always been one of the biggest challenges for the waste sector.
“Across the industry, no one is surprised by what we’ve found, and although we researched those two supermarkets, we know this also happens at several others,” says Alison Colclough, research director at Everyday Plastic.
“Retailers want to promote themselves as environmentally responsible so their customers can say ‘I don’t feel bad about buying apples in plastic wrapping because I can take the packaging back.’ However, recycling soft plastics is always notoriously difficult.”
But why is it so hard – and how can we make it easier?
What is the solution to the soft plastics problem?
“Soft plastics are the big recycling headache,” says Richard Hudson, Technical Manager at the Chartered Insitution of Wastes Management (CIWM). “For a start, there’s a challenge in the many different types of soft plastic, and no one seems in full agreement as to what we should call them.
“You’ve got some films that are mono-material, predominantly polyethylene or polypropylene, but then you’ve got variations, the metallised films used in crisp packets or products that are sensitive to air and oxygen.
“You’ve got others using different materials to provide barriers for smells coming from the product or other elements going into it from outside. These are all difficult to recycle together, so many are incompatible with each other. Then throw into the mix contamination – for example, pet food pouches are really difficult to wash.
“Another factor is that plastic film is actually very low in weight so, even if your bin’s overflowing, it’s such low bulk density that it makes it expensive to handle, collect and transport, which messes up your process economics. And, at the end of all that, you’ve got limited end markets.”
Investment is one answer, which could potentially come in the form of partnerships between the waste industry and manufacturers.
Food giant Nestlé, for instance, has loaned £7m to UK waste innovator Impact Recycling to open what it calls a “breakthrough plastic recycling plant” in Durham.
Impact Recycling has aims, by the end of this year, to deploy its patented Baffled Oscillation Separation Technology (BOSS) to recover polyethylene and polypropylene with a 98% purity, converting these materials into pellets to make items such as postbags and refuse bags.
The processing problem
Good intentions on soft plastic aren’t always enough – and Nestlé, in particular, will be treading cautiously.
Last year, it committed £1m as one of several sponsors of a similar plant in Fife, launched by Morrisons with Yes Recycling – but that site was open for just eight weeks before going into administration after “significant operational issues meant that the cash burn was significantly ahead of projections”.
The number one problem was the poor quality of materials coming into the site, The Grocer reported, whose anonymous source revealed that they were finding frying pans and lawnmowers in what was supposed to be a bale of soft plastic.
However, it’s better that the supermarkets do something than nothing, says Hudson,
“Supermarkets have generally become very good at recycling, especially when you compare the quality of the soft plastic waste they collect against what is going to be in householders’ bins when Simpler Recycling comes in,” Hudson says.
“They’re actually being very proactive because there’s nothing in legislation forcing them to do this right now. Of course, their customers are demanding it, and they want to be seen to be reacting, but ahead of plastic film being added to the Simpler Recycling streams in 2027, there’s a need to build up the critical mass of this raw material to be able to make some judgements on it.
“Some of these end-markets are in their infancy, and where we are now is all part of the learning and development of those markets.”
It’s “inevitable”, says Hudson, that a lot of soft plastic waste is being incinerated through Energy-from-Waste (EfW) because of its quality.
“It is mixed and – with the best will in the world – it will be contaminated,” he says. “I have some sympathy with the supermarkets because, although their messaging has clearly been accused of misleading people, they’ve tried to handle it the best way they can.
“They can either landfill it or put it down the EfW route. But they are following what is the existing export market. Hopefully, 10 years down the line, things will be different – we may, for instance, have chemical recycling – but we are currently struggling for end-markets, so we need to open up conversations about this.”
The impact of Simpler Recycling
A key reason the supermarkets’ take-back schemes have proved so popular is that only a relatively few UK householders – around 13% – can currently put their soft plastics waste out for kerbside collections.
But Simpler Recycling rules will oblige local authorities to collect soft plastics from the kerbside from March 2027 – so how will councils dispose of it then?
“Where there’s a will there’s a way,” says Cllr Anthony Rowlands, lead for recycling and waste management at St Albans City and District Council.
And he should know – his local authority has for the past decade consistently been one of England’s top five most prolific recycling councils.
Although residents of the Hertfordshire town can have up to five bins (for garden waste, recyclable, non-recyclable, food waste, and paper and cardboard), St Albans does not currently collect soft plastic because it can’t dispose of the material.
The current lack of facilities means waste processors will have to invest in their sites…
“We have a very efficient system and, clearly, very committed residents,” says Cllr Rowlands. “Our waste is collected by Veolia and processed at its site in Rainham (Essex), but that facility cannot handle soft plastics.
“To its credit, the company has been very receptive to what we want to do, and we are working closely with it in ongoing discussions to work out how we can add soft plastics to the collections.
“But there are a few considerations: one is whether we tell people to put soft plastic into their wheelie bin or do it with a separate collection – and then working out the most sustainable way of doing that.
“But the big issue is what to do with it. The current lack of facilities means waste processors will have to invest in their sites, and that means a cost that will probably be passed on, so we would also have to negotiate what we think is a fair sum.
“But I genuinely welcome soft plastics being part of Simpler Recycling, as it’s making everybody do something about it. It’s something we’ll all have to do, so we’ll be very happy to exchange information with other local authorities and potentially learn solutions from them.
“I’m sure we will find that way, and that our residents will get behind us and less soft plastic will end up in residual.”
Of course, the biggest, most effective solution is already well known – the challenge of recycling soft plastics would be mitigated if there was less of it.
The UK throws away an estimated 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging a year, according to private collection company Business Waste – and a report by Greenpeace suggests we produce more plastic waste per capita than any other country apart from the USA.
Reduce not recycle
“The biggest impact will come from thinking fundamentally about producing less plastic,” says Colclough. “Worldwide we’re only recycling about eight or nine% of our plastic, so we’re so far away from keeping up with production.
“I’m a realist. I understand we’re not going to remove all packaging and we’re not saying all plastic must be replaced whatever the cost. Recycling must remain part of the solution, but that’s for the plastics we can’t do without.”
However, Colclough is concerned that the supermarkets’ take-back schemes are not the only area where retailers lack transparency.
“We are seeming to lean on soft plastic more,” she says. “A lot of supermarkets are voluntarily setting plastic reduction targets. But these are being met by ‘lightweighting’ – producing soft plastic, which is actually more difficult to recycle.
“They’re promoting that they’re moving away from hard plastics so they can say they’re meeting the targets, but the soft-plastic packaging that’s replacing it is actually harder to recycle.”
It’s obvious the industry needs to find simple ways to reduce our reliance on soft plastics. Last year, WRAP recommended a seven-year pathway to make 50% of fresh fruit and veg to be sold loose by the end of 2030.
“About 70% of UK food waste comes from the home, with fresh fruit and veg the main offenders,” it said. “Selling this loose will also lead to significant reductions in the hard-to-recycle single-use plastic we put in our bins.”
It’s a campaign Everyday Plastic supports.
“We can move away from unnecessary soft plastics packaging,” says Coldough, “and fruit and veg is certainly a way to do that. France and other countries are already there, so there’s no reason we can’t, even if we started with, say, just potatoes. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Everyday Plastic’s report recommended that Sainsbury’s and Tesco publicly support the UN’s Global Plastics Pollution Treaty negotiations coming up at the end of the year – but, says Coldough, the UK’s mindset around its own infrastructure needs to be addressed.
“There’s a huge amount of capacity in incineration,” she adds, “and even more in planning, so another of our recommendations is to call a moratorium on incineration capacity or planning approvals. It’s undermining the need to reduce the amount of plastic being produced.”
As is the UK’s other current main solution – exporting its plastic waste. The Greenpeace report claims that Britain’s waste is overwhelming other countries’ recycling systems (notably Malaysia and Turkey), “causing serious harm to their citizens and environment”.
The UK ships out around 600,000 tonnes a year, third behind only Germany and Japan, according to a 2024 study by CleanHub. Everyday Plastic’s revelations about Tesco and Sainsbury’s may end up placing soft plastics where they will actually do the most good: at the forefront of consumer conversation.
Take-back schemes had eased customer consciences and impressed greener buyers that their supermarket was helping to solve the problem.
Tesco – very little helps?
Now that consumers know that Tesco, for example, was never fulfilling its pledge to recover “80% of the soft plastic returned” and “keep it out of landfill” supermarkets are not only having to defend their positions, but to find solutions.
“We know there is a lot more progress to be made, and the infrastructure to recycle soft plastics at scale in the UK and the EU still has a way to go,” conceded Tesco in a statement to Circular Online last month.
Sainsbury’s, which said it had improved its signage to clarify the parameters of its take-back scheme, said: “Feedback is important to us and we’d welcome any suggestions on how we can improve our efforts in this area.”
Everyday Plastic is keen that supermarkets must always be a valued contributor to finding the way forward.
“Our campaign purposely didn’t go down the boycotting route, because that simply isn’t constructive,” she says. “We always want to work with Industry and retailers to find solutions. Ultimately, what we’re trying to achieve is a more sustainable future to benefit every one of us.”
