UK households are “wishcycling” more than recycling. The team from Lancaster University published a report with these results and says this is a major issue that government, food producers, and waste management need to solve urgently.
The report shows that many households in the UK are wishcycling, which means they’re putting items in recycling bins and hoping for the best rather than knowing whether they’re recyclable. Many decide whether food packaging is recyclable based on how the packet feels rather than by checking the container. Confusing product labels and differing recycling facilities around the country often cause this.
The team from Lancaster University’s Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL) project has been working with supermarkets, businesses, charities, and waste management companies for the last 3.5 years to explore how UK families behave regarding plastic food packaging. A total of 552 people and 91 organisations were involved in the research, which included interviews with consumers and households, workshops, supply chain companies, and waste management facility visits.
“We have studied the plastic packaging cycle – from the moment plastic is made through to how it is used by suppliers, experienced by customers, and then treated in the waste process, to get a full picture of the UK’s attitudes and behaviours towards plastic food packaging,” said Professor Maria Piacentini, Co-Principal Investigator of the PPiPL project.
“Our results suggest some UK households really care about the planet and try their best, but reducing food waste in their homes is as much a priority as minimising plastic – and can sometimes trump concerns over packaging. We also find a reluctance to wash and recycle some packaging due to fears of contamination – for instance, from raw meat or fish packets. Residents are more likely to throw this sort of recyclable waste into the normal bin or contaminate their household recycling by not washing the containers, which can cause far greater contamination further on in the recycling process. This is important for policymakers to understand if we are to achieve the ambitions set out in the UK Plastics Pact.”
“The inconsistency in waste collection services across UK councils is still complicating matters, as we can encounter different waste and recycling facilities at home, work, and when we are out and about,” said Dr Alison Stowell, co-principal investigator for the PPiPL project adds. “If the UK fulfils its ambitions for a ‘simpler, common-sense approach’ to recycling through standardisation of bin collection services, and food producers worked with On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) to create uniform labelling, recycling could be a lot less confusing and more effective for us all.”
As part of the project, members of the team collaborated with two businesses for 3 to 6 months to explore the use of plastic in their supply chains, understand customer demands, and experiment with alternative plastic packaging. As a result of the project, one of the firms changed its specifications for its own supply chains to transport more food in bulk and reduce the amount of plastic used in transportation.
Trying alternative packaging highlighted the strengths and value of plastic for food safety and transportation and uncovered environmental challenges posed by alternative food packaging due to the lack of waste management infrastructure set up to recycle it on a grand scale.
“We discovered some supply chain firms believed customers would reject packaging made from some recycled plastics due to imperfections or flecks in the containers, which they thought customers would find off-putting. The dynamic element of our research enabled us to put this perception to the test, so we went and tested it out with customers in a large supermarket – and found this to be largely untrue,” said Dr Stowell.
The report outlines the project’s findings and aims to guide consumers, retailers, suppliers, and policymakers toward collective solutions for a more effective use of plastic and cleaner, greener growth.
Some of their recommendations include:
- Supporting ways to get organisations involved in the food supply chain to work together to share problems and best practices to help drive innovation in sustainable packaging
- Helping producers and brands to design packaging using texture or colour to make packaging more noticeable to consumers
- Helping customers to pay greater attention to the food packaging they purchase
- Helping families to learn how to sort, wash, and squash their household recycling to save space, reduce the carbon footprint in transit, and increase opportunities for secondary use
- Disseminating local council’s guidelines and preventing contamination via ‘wishcycling’
These recommendations are now being shared with supply chains, waste management, councils, and government in the hope that changes can make recycling easier for consumers.