Our ineffectiveness at recycling plastic packaging is creating a significant environmental problem, with plastic waste accounting for a large percentage of the 30 million items littered in the UK each year.

Over recent years, the Government has introduced numerous measures in an attempt to tackle the issue, including the plastic packaging tax in 2022 and both the extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which are set to roll out over the next two years.

At the same time as the roll-out of the recycling initiatives, consumers have been bombarded with campaigns to promote the importance of recycling, and drive up participation rates. However, whilst the introduction and effort of such policies is welcome, whether they are drastic enough to tackle the issue is questionable.

And, as shown in a new report written by The University of Manchester’s One Bin to Rule Them All project team – which involves a cross-sector consortium of 25 industry partners and local authorities – the blame does not in fact lie with consumers.

Instead, the report shows that to truly tackle the issue of plastic waste, we urgently require a substantial overhaul of the plastic production and recycling system. Based on research over a three-year period, the report dissects in-depth data collected with 30 diverse households in Greater Manchester.

The report is based on research that involved trialling a ‘one bin’ system, which saw households decant all plastic waste – including recyclable and non-recyclable materials – into a single bin unit, in place of sorting into different receptacles.

This allowed the research team to explore how consumers engage with recycling, and showed that, despite poor consumer practice often being held up to blame for excess packaging waste, this isn’t an appropriate assessment.

On the contrary, most households are eager to do the right thing, with numerous respondents demonstrating a willingness to travel to local authorities with different recycling rules, solely to correctly dispose of their plastic. It’s important to note that this sentiment was reflected by different demographics – with not just middle-class households, which are typically seen as sustainability ‘savvy’ due to having more time, resources, and storage space, eager to recycle. Indeed, it’s clear the issues are widespread.

The current narrative of ‘blame the consumer’ does not tackle the underlying conditions driving low recycling rates, and could in fact be damaging to future consumer engagement with the issue.

Instead, the research showed that low recycling rates are driven by a widespread lack of clarity over what can be recycled, where, and how. A key driver of this is the country’s geographical inconsistency in recycling capacity.

Postcode lottery

It is estimated that there are 39 differing bin regimes across the UK, as well as 3,500 waste recycling plants with varying capabilities in infrastructure. Rules relating to treatment also usually depend on the requirements of the municipal recycling facility accepting the waste, which largely differ between sites.

For example, some local authorities require caps to be removed from bottles before they are disposed of, whilst others have the capability to do so whilst the cap is still attached.

This siloed and fragmented system has contributed to the lack of clarity over correct procedure, whilst the inability of some local authorities to process certain plastics holds back consumers from recycling what may be possible to recycle elsewhere.

Adopting a standardised approach to plastic recycling would allow for a consistent method of waste management across the country. This would create a platform on which the Government can begin to effectively deliver the transition towards a circular economy of plastic waste.

However, it is worth noting that the onus does not lie solely on local authorities. It’s also integral that material designers and plastic producers adopt a large-scale, standardised approach to manufacturing.

Consistency in packaging

Many types of household plastic packaging are made of ‘multi-materials’ – by which we mean they are made up of a combination of materials (e.g. plastic and cardboard), alongside multiple polymer types and additives. This makes it difficult for consumers to determine what items are made of, and therefore which bin they should go in. These materials are also traditionally much harder to recycle, owing to their inconsistency in composition, meaning that a lot more plastic ends up in the general bin instead of being recycled.

The 30 households involved in the ‘One Bin’ project trial produced a total of 5,800 pieces of plastic over the two-week trial period, representing just under 200 pieces of plastic per household in the space of a fortnight – this is a quite staggering amount. Of this total, nearly half of the items collected consisted of multi-material packaging, indicating the scale of the challenge which faces us.

Maximising the recycling of flexibles, for example, will involve reducing the complexity of their design and would also require broad adoption across sectors to see real change. The severity of the plastics challenge dictates that it can no longer be ignored if the UK is to truly achieve its sustainability goals.

One bin to rule them all?

The implementation of clear, simple systems will increase recycling, and adopting the policies outlined in the report will be integral in helping to achieve this.

Such measures are undoubtedly drastic, and would require close collaboration between the private sector and central Government across numerous localities and sectors. However, the research shows that the willingness for change amongst consumers is there – now the onus is on industry and government to capitalise on this enthusiasm with action.

Dr Helen Holmes is a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester’s Sustainable Consumption Institute.