NGOs Everyday Plastic and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) teamed up to track samples of plastic packaging waste from UK supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury’s and found that most of it was burnt, not recycled.
Using Apple AirTags, the organisations tracked 40 bundles of soft plastic packaging waste through take-back schemes across England over 12 months. While they lost track of some of the bundles before they reached a final destination, the NGOs found that "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 remaining bundles ended up at recycling facilities downcycling soft plastic waste into lower value products such as bin bags, with most of it happening at recycling facilities abroad and the majority in Turkey.
Following the findings of their report, published on 1 October, the NGOs said that recycling claims from supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury’s misrepresent the environmental impact of plastic packaging.
In a legal briefing accompanying the report, NGO ClientEarth said consumer protection authorities can challenge misleading recycling claims on products already on the market. "These claims are a systemic issue in the sector and companies have been allowed to continue for too long," said ClientEarth lawyer Katie-Scarlett Wetherall.
Recommendations
The report makes several recommendations to address the environmental impact of plastic packaging, including calling on the UK government to support a 40% cut in global plastic production by 2040 and for Tesco and Sainsbury’s to publicly support this.
The recommendations for supermarkets are to:
- significantly reduce non-essential single-use plastic packaging, including soft plastic packaging;
- stop exporting collected soft plastic packaging waste; and
- be transparent with customers about the challenges soft plastic packaging present.
As for the UK government, the report urges policy measures to:
- cut plastic production by setting legally binding targets to reduce single-use packaging and facilitate reusable packaging;
- remove plastic packaging from fresh produce by 2030;
- ban all exports of UK plastic waste by 2027;
- introduce an immediate moratorium on new incineration and energy-from-waste capacity across the UK; and
- prevent the uptake of chemical recycling as an option for plastic, including packaging.
Recycling challenges
In response to the investigation, a Tesco spokesperson told Chemical Watch News & Insight that its stores have a clear plan to remove packaging wherever possible and "reducing, reusing and recycling" it where they cannot.
Tesco has soft plastics collection points in its stores and where it is not possible to recycle the collected plastic, it is put "to alternative uses to avoid these materials going to landfill", which includes energy recovery.
"We know there is a lot more progress to be made, and the infrastructure to recycle soft plastics at scale in the UK and the EU still has a way to go," they said.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told Chemical Watch News & Insight that its ‘Return to Store’ recycling scheme provides the opportunity to recycle more soft plastic until kerbside collection becomes available in 2026/27.
"We collect a small volume of flexible plastic overall in-store and the majority is in good condition and so is recycled. However, when materials are soiled or damaged, then they may need to be converted for energy, which is managed by our supplier," said the Sainsbury’s spokesperson.
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