Ever wondered what happens to the soft plastic that you return to the supermarket for recycling…?
…watch our film to find out
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Our new investigation reveals the hard truth about soft plastic recycling points at supermarkets…
🕵️ 40 bundles of soft plastic packaging waste were tracked through take-back schemes across England over 12 months.
🔥 Of the tracked soft plastic packaging waste collected for recycling at Sainsbury's and Tesco stores, 70% of the soft plastic that reached a known destination was burnt, not recycled
🇹🇷 The rest ended up at recycling facilities that downcycle soft plastic waste into lower value products – the majority of which were in Türkiye.
⚠️ Environmental law NGO ClientEarth warns that the results of the investigation show that supermarket soft plastic take-back schemes are misleading customers.
🗣️ We’re now calling for Sainsbury's and Tesco to publicly support a 40% cut in global plastic production by 2040.
What happened to the soft plastic waste?
Collectively, these tracked bundles of soft plastic were found to have travelled over 25,000 km across the UK and overseas. Out of the trackers that we know reached a final destination…
What’s next?
The investigation shows that we urgently need to move away from false solutions.
We need to focus on eliminating unnecessary, non-essential single-use soft packaging and accelerating the transition to universally designed reuse and refill systems. You can read our recommendations in full.
Right now, world leaders are negotiating The Global Plastics Treaty – an international legal agreement to prevent the harmful impacts of plastic. So we’re calling for the UK government to support a cut in global plastic production by 40% by 2040…
…and we want Sainsbury’s and Tesco to publicly support this.
✏️ You can help push for change. Add your voice now and sign our petition. ✏️
Already signed the petition? Click on the icons to share with your family, friends, colleagues, and community.
A bit of background
In 2021, supermarkets began to roll out an initiative to tackle the growing plastic problem – soft plastic packaging take-back schemes that claimed to help tackle the impact of plastic waste.
Supermarket communications around the schemes, along with revised on-pack recycling labelling, reassure customers that soft plastic is both recyclable and recycled – encouraging all of us to save up our salad bags, crisp packets, pasta packs, and pet food pouches at home, and drop it all off at supermarket collection points.
Just over 10% of local councils collect soft plastic at the kerbside, and the waste industry widely acknowledges that there are significant challenges to recycling soft plastic.
"The truth is that finding a genuine solution for recycling soft plastic at scale is extremely difficult, if not impossible."
Sainsbury's and Tesco – between them – hold 43% market share of the UK supermarket sector. Both have widely rolled out soft plastic collection points to all their large stores. These take-back schemes encourage customers to collect their single-use soft plastic packaging at home and return it to the store, and are said to aim to increase recycling rates and reduce plastic waste.
Why is this important?
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060.
By 2050, global emissions from plastic production are estimated to account for one-fifth of the Earth’s remaining carbon budget.
Researchers warn that chemical pollution, also deriving from plastic use, threatens the stability of global ecosystems and human health.
Current estimates show that over 215 billion items of soft plastic packaging are placed on the market each year in the UK
In 2022, only 7% of soft plastics placed on the UK market were collected for recycling at the kerbside.
Want some more stats? Need a question answered? Then head to our Facts & FAQs page.
Read the full press release and contact us with any media enquiries.
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Please get in touch with any questions or thoughts about the campaign.
You can find a link to the report appendices here
The Hard Truth About Soft Plastic is an investigation by Everyday Plastic and EIA.
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