A shocking investigation shows that almost 70% of the plastic collected is not recycled, but burned
Around 70% of the soft plastic collected in supermarket recycling systems and tracked after collection ends up being incinerated, a survey by campaigners shows.
By placing tracking devices in soft plastic packages collected by British supermarket chains Sainsbury’s and Tesco in July 2023 and February 2024, activists found that most of them ended up being incinerated, as they should have been.
which carried out the investigation with the Environmental Investigation Agency, tracked plastic parcels that supermarkets collected from customers with the promise that they would be recycled.
Out of 40 plastic packages, tracking devices reached their final destination in 17 cases. Of those, 12 packages were used as fuel pellets or burned for energy, they note.
Much of the collected plastic was not recycled
Alison Colclough, of Everyday Plastic, said: “Our trackers reveal the hard truth about soft plastic recycling systems at supermarkets – soft plastic packaging will not be recycled. Most of the packages we tracked ended up being incinerated – a solution that is increasingly being used to deal with the unmanageable amount of plastic waste.”
Collection systems are presented as a solution, which distracts attention from the main problem that cannot be overlooked: far too much unnecessary plastic packaging is being produced, the specialist emphasizes.
Too much packaging in the world
The UK sends most of its recycling abroad, exporting almost 600,000 tonnes in 2023, a 10% increase on the previous year. In August 2023 alone, almost 53,000 tons of plastic waste were exported.
Turkey was the largest destination for UK plastic waste exports in 2023, receiving more than 140,000 tonnes. The Netherlands was the second destination, with 116,500 metric tons.
