A recent investigation has revealed a surprising reality behind the soft plastic recycling schemes in supermarkets. The Everyday Plastic campaign group and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA UK) found that 70% of the soft plastics collected by customers at Tesco and Sainsbury’s with the expectation of recycling actually end up being incinerated. The investigation involved tracking 40 bundles of soft plastic waste collected from supermarket recycling schemes, with most of them being burned for energy recovery.
The soft plastics collected for recycling include single-use bags, films, and wrapping, and the majority of them are exported for recycling. In 2023 alone, nearly 600,000 tonnes of plastic waste were exported from the UK, with Turkey receiving the most at 140,000 metric tons followed by the Netherlands at 116,500 metric tons. Alison Colclough from Everyday Plastic expressed concern over the misleading representation of soft plastic recycling schemes, stating that the focus should be on reducing unnecessary plastic packaging production.
Katie-Scarlett Wetherall from NGO Client Earth highlighted the gap between the reality of plastic recycling and what supermarkets communicate to customers. She mentioned that claims made on packages could be misleading. Countries are preparing to negotiate a global plastics waste treaty, with previous talks raising concerns about the influence of the fossil fuel and plastics lobby on decisions regarding plastic production cuts.
Both Sainsbury’s and Tesco responded to the investigation findings. Sainsbury’s explained that they manage the end-of-life of packaging through recycling schemes until kerbside collection becomes available in 2026-27. Tesco stated that while they aim to remove packaging where possible, they provide soft plastics collection points in stores for items that cannot be recycled. The collected plastics that cannot be recycled are repurposed to avoid landfill.
The investigation has sparked discussions about the need for more transparency and effective waste management strategies in the recycling industry. As countries gear up for international agreements on plastic waste management, the issue of plastic production and recycling continues to be a significant environmental concern that requires collective action and responsible practices.