Programme Lead Policy and Insights at WRAP, Chris Mills, explains how the global environmental action non-governmental organisation brings collaborative action to Simpler Recycling reforms.
For over 20 years, global environmental action NGO WRAP has played a significant role in bringing together policy makers, NGOs, local governments and businesses to increase recycling rates in the UK.
WRAP has done this through evidence-based research, developing key resources and delivering citizen communication campaigns through their Recycle Now and Love Food Hate Waste brands.
While major developments in the UK’s resource management have taken place in recent years, the new Simpler Recycling reforms are needed to support the Government’s Circular Economy target to achieve 65% municipal waste recycling by 2035 and halve residual waste per capita by 2042.
Workplace recycling changes
To achieve the UK Government’s ambitious recycling and Net Zero targets, WRAP has been working with Defra on the huge opportunities in the business waste sector.
WRAP’s Business of Recycling website was launched as a key resource to support and help businesses and non-domestic premises in England prepare for the introduction of the new Workplace Recycling Law this month.
Historically, businesses have not been obliged to recycle and only around 40% of the 2.2 million businesses regularly did, so there are huge environmental benefits with this new legislation that requires businesses to separate their dry recyclables and food waste from residual waste.
Micro-businesses with less than 10 full time equivalent staff have another two years to be compliant by 31 March 2027.
Increasing public confidence in recycling
WRAP’s latest Recycling Tracker report – the UK’s largest survey that’s been tracking the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of citizens for 20 years – showed that while recycling continues to be a widespread practice across the UK, there is still more we can do to encourage citizens to recycle more of the right things, more often.
We can turn our Recycling Tracker insights into actions, by highlighting how local authorities using resources available from WRAP, can increase citizen recycling confidence.
They include:
Increase Recycling Knowledge
Tackling contamination and missed capture requires focused, ongoing education. Our national recycling campaigns, like Recycle Now and Be Mighty, have shown that when people are informed, they recycle better.
Communicate with Purpose
Build recycling campaigns all year round to boost both citizen recycling confidence and knowledge. Make it easy for citizens to understand what to recycle and why it matters.
Updating WRAP’s LA Portal with any changes to local authority collection services is so important, so its accurate when citizens are searching WRAP’s Recycle Now Recycling Locator for guidance on how and where to recycle.
The Recycle Now Rescue Me Recycle Now assets are available for local authorities to use on their communications all year around.
Share your recycling journey
Be transparent about where recycling goes and what impact it has. By sharing your success stories, you can rebuild citizen trust that’s essential for driving better recycling behaviour.
Introducing weekly food waste collections in every household
Another momentous milestone, as part of the Environment Act 2021 and the Simpler Recycling reforms, requires local authorities in England to provide all households with a separate weekly collection of food waste by 31 March 2026.
WRAP’s technical and policy teams have been supporting Defra with the following guidance and support.
Household Food Waste Communications Guidance
A free resource for local authorities, to ensure households are informed effectively of the introduction of their food waste collections.
It features a step-by-step guide to help prepare and plan their food waste campaign, including a template communications plan and activity schedule, plus a suite of editable food waste assets for digital and stickering.
The assets feature WRAP’s Recycle Now branding, which has high levels of recognition throughout the UK and used by around 90% of local authorities.
Educating citizens on food waste prevention is also the key driver of citizen behaviour change and last month, WRAP held its fifth nationwide Food Waste Action Week.
This annual campaign is taking the fight against food waste, one of the biggest contributors to climate change, right into people’s homes and promoting the benefits of buying fresh produce loose.
The campaign is supported through the hospitality and food service sector by WRAP’s Guardians of Grub campaign, which helps businesses serving food on premise or to take away to reduce food waste front and back of house.
Missed capture of key items reduced following Recycle Week
During Recycle Week 2024 – the UK’s largest national annual recycling campaign – we headed to Downing Street, to raise awareness of the one billion items that are ending up in our bins each year that could have been recycled.
The campaign reached 7.3 million citizens and inspired 2.9 million people to change their recycling habits as a result. The rate of missed capture for the five key recyclable items dropped by a significant amount from 70% to 64%.
This year, 2025 Recycle Week is taking place from 22 to 28 September, so save the date and get involved.
Supporting local authorities with Simpler Recycling Collections
Following the government’s new position on separate collections and the Environment Act 2021 requiring all collectors including local authorities to undertake a “Written Assessment” to evidence where they decide to deviate, WRAP have developed an eTEEP tool to support them with the process.
The tool has been designed in conjunction with around 50 pilot local authorities to ensure it delivers high standards of analysis, reduces their time and cost savings.
WRAP’s eTEEP tool will be available from the start of the financial year and will be accessible through WRAP’s LA Portal.
Together a circular future
WRAP’s mission is to embed Circular Living in every boardroom and every home, and while we have been doing this for over 20 years, our independent convening power to drive change through our policy work, technical support and citizen communications is even more critical to supporting the government’s recycling and Net Zero targets.
