UK consumers still confused by packaging recyclability – report

UK consumers remain confused about recycling for the packaging of the products they buy and producers must use innovative new materials to make disposal choice more efficient and therefore effective.

That’s the finding of a survey by environmental packing specialist Aquapak.

Seventy percent of British consumers admit they are confused by which packaging can and can’t be recycled.

Meanwhile, only 21% say they always read the recycling instructions on product packaging although this increases to 31% in the 25-34 age group, but drops to 17% for those aged 65 and over.  

Strikingly, only 9% say they never bother reading whether the packaging they have bought can be recycled.

The survey also points to a problem with the recycling instructions producers are using on their packaging.  Only 10% of Britons say they always find instructions on how to dispose of packaging easy to understand, 52% describing them as “sometimes” understandable and just 29% saying they are “often” easy to understand.

When asked which everyday packaging is the easiest to dispose of and recycle, 53% said paper; followed by glass (18%), plastic (13%), mixed materials (9%) and metal (7%).

“The findings highlight the enormous challenge the government faces when it comes to the 12 million tonnes of packaging waste thrown away in the UK annually, a significant proportion of which is plastic or complex flexible packaging using conventional plastic which is difficult to sort and recycle”, the report concludes.  

The report also noted that to tackle the problem, the government introduced ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) on 1 January, which is intended to “shift the responsibility from consumers to producers, incentivising them to create recyclable packaging and providing clearer guidance to consumers, ultimately leading to a more straightforward and less confusing recycling process”.

However, Aquapak is calling on the government to ensure that legislation underpinning the EPR enables producers to use new materials if they are to decrease the total environmental impact of their products by moving away for hard to recycle conventional plastics. 

Dr John Williams, chief technical officer at Aquapak, said: “Our research findings suggest that there is a very long way to go when it comes to making packaging recyclability in the UK easy to understand for the consumer, particularly as so much of it contains hard to recycle plastic material.

“There needs to be a significant shift away from the status quo for packaging. New legislation should support faster adoption of innovation that is specifically developed to retain packaging functionality, support recyclability and offer safe end of life options if optimal waste management processes are not available.”
 
He added: “We would also argue that if the target of EPR is to ensure that producers actively engage in sustainable practices and decrease the total environmental impact from their products and packaging, we can’t keep using the same tools and materials to fix the problem.  Extended responsibility must also mean an extension to include the use of proven new materials to help producers recycle more effectively without compromising the integrity of their products.”