Most soft plastic collected for recycling is burned, campaigners say

Everyday Plastic calls supermarket takeback schemes a diversion and says there is too much plastic packaging

Seventy per cent of soft plastic collected in supermarket recycling schemes and tracked after collection ended up being burned, an investigation by campaigners has found.

By placing trackers inside packages of soft plastic that were collected by Sainsbury's and Tesco in July 2023 and February 2024, campaigners found that most of them ended up being incinerated rather than recycled.