Learn from business leaders transforming our plastics system
Progress continues at pace towards our targets. What does the picture look like and what can you learn from business leaders?
Target 1 - Eliminating problem plastics
How are UK Plastics Pact members reducing and eliminating problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics.
-
Sainsbury's removing plastic across the business
Removing plastic wrap from fresh produce items, plastic trays from fresh whole chickens and replacing plastic straws with paper straws on lunchbox juice cartons.
-
Ocado - double stacked steaks
In partnership with Linden Foods, Ocado have brought to market a new steak packaging format with 50% less plastic.
-
Tesco remove plastic wrap
Tesco has removed more than 1.7 billion pieces of plastic including from plastic wrapped tinned multipacks.
Target 1 - More examples of industry innovation and progress
-
Morrisons loose fruit multibuy
Testing a fruit multibuy offer on the sale of loose, which matched or beat the pre-pack offer, saw Morrisons increase loose sales by 50%.
-
Premier Foods removing polystyrene
To boost recyclability, Premier Foods have removed polystyrene from its Saxa min pots.
-
Co-op additional lid removal
Removing additional plastic lids across its dairy products has led to Co-Op removing 67.5 tonnes of plastic.
-
Yeo Valley removing polystyrene
Yeo Valley has removed polystyrene from Little Yeos 6 pack cluster packaging changing to recyclable polypropylene material.
Target 2 - Reusable or recyclable
How are UK Plastics Pact members turning the dial on recyclability?
-
Asda and Unilever collaborate on refill innovations
Asda and Unilever partner with WRAP to explore how citizens interact with instore refill zones.
-
Sainsbury's refillable handwash pouches
Sainsbury's new refillable handwash pouches use 85% less plastic than handwash bottles, saving of 28 tonnes of plastic every year and can be recycled at the Front of Store collection points.
-
Lucozade Sport - Applying best practice in bottle design
Lucozade Sport rolled out a bottle redesign featuring a 50% reduction in its sleeve, which means the bottles are optimised for bottle-to-bottle recycling.
-
M&S Refilled trial
Refilled is being trialled across six stores offering pre-filled cleaning and laundry products. Customers have a choice of eight products, including laundry detergents, washing up liquid and cleaning sprays.
Target 2 - More examples of industry innovation and progress
-
Hilton Foods UK moves to padless trays
The change in their diced beef packaging, removing the soaker pad, has resulted in Hilton Foods UK saving 24 tonnes of plastic.
-
Unilever refillable packaging trials
Unilever continued to expand its refillable packaging trials across the UK, including its first ‘return on the go’ refill trial, in selected Asda, Tesco and Co-op convenience stores across the UK.
-
Müller - Designing for recyclability
Working with its retail partners, Müller has introduced clear caps to its branded milk to further improve the recyclability of milk bottles.
-
Morrisons launches lower environmental impact store
The store will house Morrisons widest range of no plastic products - priced the same or less than their standard equivalents - allowing customers to half the amount of plastic in their weekly shop.
-
Ecover refillery
Ecover turned a former petrol station into the ‘Ecover Refillery’ - a destination dedicated to fighting plastic waste with refills. The event encouraged the public to refill their Ecover bottle and learn about the benefits of a refill lifestyle.
Target 3 - Boosting plastics recycling to 70%
How are UK Plastics Pact members playing their part to supercharge recycling
-
Trialling kerbside collections
Ahead of the national rollout of kerbside collections for plastic bags and wrapping, Ecosurety, Recoup, Suez and WRAP have embarked on the most extensive pilot ever for household collection and recycling of this challenging material.
-
Miracle-Gro’s Compost Bag Recycling Scheme
Working with Veolia and Dobbies Garden Centres, consumers bring their Miracle-Gro compost bags back to store for the bags to be processed into garden furniture.
-
Mondelēz on-pack QR codes
A QR code on-pack takes users to the 'snackrite' platform where amongst other sustainability initiatives, users are directed to the Recycle Now's Recycling Locator to help them find out what packaging materials can be recycled near them.
-
Morrisons to co-own flexible plastic recycling site
Morrisons will become the first supermarket to own its own recycling operations through the acquisition of a significant stake in a new recycling site in Fife. They have committed to recycle and reuse the equivalent amount of plastic it puts on to the market within its own recycling facilities by 2025.
Target 3 - More examples of industry innovation and progress
-
evian trial digital DRS scheme
Using their phones, visitors scanned barcodes on their empty drink containers and the QRcode on the collection point in return for a prize draw entry. This pilot was a way to increase recycling rates and help evian identify how to make recycling initiatives engaging and easy to use.
-
Jayplas - closing the UK recycling loop
Jayplas opened a new washing and pelletising plant for plastic bags and wrapping. It has increased their capacity for this material to 50,000 tonnes. It will remove contamination such as paper, food and dirt from material collected at front of store before being processed into pellets for use in a broad range of end market applications.
Target 4 - Achieving 30% recycled content
How are Pact members raising the bar on Recycled Content levels in plastic packaging?
-
KitKat wrappers with 80% recycled plastic
Nestle brand KitKat UK & Ireland will transition to a minimum 80% recycled plastic across its packaging by 2024, starting with the flagship two-finger product from Autumn 2022.
-
Heinz industry collaboration recycling post-consumer plastic waste
Heinz collaborated with SABIC, Berry Global and Plastic Energy to produce Heinz Beanz Snap Pots made from post-consumer plastic waste, collected from front of store collection points.
-
Mondelēz International - mass balance approach
Mondelez International’s Cadbury Dairy Milk and Cadbury Mini Snowballs are now wrapped in packaging with 30% recycled plastic. Using the mass balance approach, the post-consumer, recycled plastic packaging will be independently certified by ISCC and supplied in partnership with Amcor.
-
Kingsmill - advanced recycling
Kingsmill worked with their bread bag supplier (St Johns Packaging) and SABIC to introduce the first ever bread bag featuring 30% advanced recycled content. The equivalent of 750,000 virgin plastic bags were removed from Kingsmill’s supply chain during the year-long trial.
Target 4 - More examples of industry innovation and progress
-
Cranswick fully recyclable foodsafe barrier film
Cranswick Country Foods has moved to a new fully recyclable, foodsafe barrier film with 30% recycled content, supplied by Yorkshire Packaging Systems (YPS), for use across the business' poultry range.
-
Hilton Foods - innovation in lidding film
Hilton Foods UK and Fairfax Meadow introduced a lidding film for MAP trays which contains 30% recycled content from chemically recycled PET. The thinner film lid will reduce plastic used by 18T and has a CO2 saving of 32T per annum.