Plastic recycling news from the world of waste in March

It is time for the next instalment of our news round-up blog series, bringing you the latest interesting news from the plastic waste and recycling industry.

With three quarters of British business still unaware of the Plastic Packaging Tax, companies have been warned that their packaging should contain at least 30% recycled content in order to avoid paying additional costs. UK supermarket giant Morrisons has also announced its new partnership with Podback, whilst Recycle Now has launched its latest recycling campaign with Clear on Plastics. Catch up on the latest industry insight from March below…

Over three quarters of British businesses ‘still unaware’ of Plastic Packaging Tax

Despite the Tax now being here, research conducted by YouGov has reported that 77% of British retail and manufacturing are still ‘unaware’ of the Plastic Packaging Tax. The survey also found that only 22% of the businesses asked had already opted for recycled content in their packaging.

If all packaging contained 30% recycled packaging, the UK would save 2.89 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

Recycle Now launches plastic bags and wrapping campaign

In a bid to raise awareness on what plastic packaging can and can’t be recycled. Recycle Now and Clear on Plastics have launched a campaign to encourage the recycling of plastic bags and packaging at front-of-store locations.

With an aim to reduce the widespread confusion around which items can be recycled – which often contaminate kerbside collections – the campaign hopes to encourage new behaviours amongst consumers when it comes to disposing of plastic waste.

Morrisons launches partnership with Podback

Morrisons is now the first out of the UK supermarkets to offer an in-store coffee pod recycling scheme. The supermarket giant has partnered with Podback to help combat the increase in disposable coffee-pods being used, due to the rise in home working.

Once launched, customers will be able to collect free ‘Podback Collect+’ recycling bags, which they can then use at home – once full, they can be taken to one of Podback’s 6,500 Collect+ drop-off points, provided by Yodel.

Tesco’s eco pledge ‘falls short’ as expose reveals ‘messy reality’ of plastic waste

According to Bloomberg, UK supermarket giant, Tesco, has fallen short on its promise to recycle soft plastics – having previously pledged that none of its packaging will end up in landfill.

Rubbish which started off in a recycling bin in London-based Tesco, soon ended up being transported roughly 700+ miles to the Eurokey recycling group – a waste processing centre which acts as a stopover point for plastic on its way somewhere else.

Keep up to date with our favourite news stories next month, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, for more recycling updates and news from Indigo Environmental.