“It doesn’t work”: PM’s swipe at plastics recycling.

At a recent event, Boris Johnson claimed that plastic recycling "doesn't work" – our director or recycling, Paul Rendle-Barnes responded to the Prime Minister’s comment with Skip Hire Magazine.

If you missed the full article, you can catch up here.

Of course, recycling alone is not the answer. We should reduce single-use plastic, and focus more on circular packaging design, but to say it “doesn’t work” is completely wrong – not to mention the fact that plastic recycling is a vital pillar of the PM’s own Resources & Waste Strategy.

Also, what about the upcoming 2022 plastic packing tax – will the government now backtrack on this, following Boris’s comments?

And, is the government now suggesting a return to offshoring all our waste plastics to Asia or other less-regulated countries – adopting an 'out of sight, out of mind' approach?

Reducing plastic pollution is a multi-pronged approach which recycling alone cannot solve, but ignoring the crucial part that it plays in helping to achieve a more circular economy – regarding waste as a resource – would be foolish.

We, as a sector, need to keep informing and educating current and upcoming generations on how pivotal human intervention is in the designing, manufacturing, processing, and consuming stages, to ensure this circular material doesn’t end up as a pollutant.

And verbally bashing the people who are trying to help make this happen, doesn't feel very productive at all.