UK Plastics Pact - A Major Milestone in Plastics Recycling

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The recently published ‘A Roadmap to 2025 – the UK Plastics Pact’ document by WRAP has been touted as an important milestone in UK plastics recycling. The document provides a set of guidelines for all stakeholders including retailers, manufacturers, recyclers, local authorities and others to work in collaboration to help the country meet its 2025 recycling targets.

The targets for 2025 propose reduction of plastic usage by eliminating non-recyclable packaging and promoting reuse. Accordingly, unnecessary single-use packaging must be eliminated through redesign, innovation or reuse. 100% of the plastics packaging must be reusable, recyclable or compostable. Also 70% of the plastic packaging must be effectively recycled or composted. In addition, all plastic packaging should contain 30% average recycled content.

The Roadmap sets intermediate milestones to be achieved by April next year and by end-2022, which in turn will ensure that the 2025 targets are met. It identifies the challenges and potential solutions for these challenges. Further, it recommends that significant investments are required to modernize collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure capabilities.

The UK Plastics Pact has 68 members, responsible for more than 80% of the plastic packaging on products that are sold in the UK and nearly 50% of all plastic packaging that are placed on the UK market. It also has support of 36 trade organizations and several regional governments. The Roadmap aims to inspire members and supporters to act together to achieve the targets laid down in the UK Plastics Pact.