Under the realisation that recycling rates are levelling off and faced with challenging recycling targets for packaging waste through 2017, a new government-backed initiative with cross-industry partnership has just been launched across the UK.

“Pledge 4 Plastics” (www.pledge4plastics.co.uk) aims to not only increase awareness of the need to recycle, but to encourage every household to raise their recycled materials by one plastic bottle per week. Statistics gathered by the project developers show the average UK home recycles just 250 of 440 bottles each year, which amounts to an annual recycling rate of just 58%. Both government authorities and the national plastics industry are convinced there is vast potential for raising the collection rates among citizens (for details, see also Plasteurope.com of 04.08.2014).

Led by the locally-based Recoup recycling organisation (Peterborough; www.recoup.org) and already supported by some heavy hitters from industry such as Coca Cola Enterprises, Marks & Spencer, Unilever, Nestle Waters, Nestle UK, RPC, Veolia, Closed Loop Recycling, Valpak, Kent Resource Partnership, Surrey County Council, PlasticsEurope, WRAP and Defra, the initiative is on a major push to ensure that plastic packaging recycling levels double through 2017 and getting households to join them is pivotal to achieving the targets.

The steering committee says that without an increase in household plastic packaging recycling, the UK is likely to fall short in reaching its targets and prices and costs to businesses will rise. By diverting more material to recycling, Pledge 4 Plastics can deliver economic and environmental benefits for waste management companies, local authorities and reprocessors.

The campaign recognises an opportunity to improve the consistency of message which, participating industry members say, is essential to reduce the confusion facing consumers. They say it is important to remember that Pledge 4 Plastics is not just about recycling water and drinks bottles, but all types of plastic bottles from every room in the home including shampoo bottles and shower gels as well as domestic bleach and cooking oil bottles. In addition, they emphasise the importance of recycling food pots, tubs and trays such as yoghurt pots, margarine tubs and lasagne trays, where services exist to collect them for recycling.

At the 8 September launch of the campaign, Stuart Foster, Recoup CEO, announced, "The campaign aims to encourage people to think and act differently. We want to highlight how great things can come from recycling unwanted plastic."

Resources Management Minister Dan Rogerson chimed in: “The UK has made tremendous progress on recycling over the last 10 years, building a stronger circular economy and greener society and this reflects a lot of hard work from industry and local authorities, alongside a desire from residents to do more. This is another great initiative to boost the recycling of plastic packaging which has our full and ongoing support.”