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MAINTENANCE SPECIALIST
MAINTENANCE SPECIALIST
Britain is striving to reduce its environmental impact by improving its recycling system with the introduction of the UK Packaging Pact.
This will change the country’s packaging across a variety of sectors to have a big impact on climate change and protect both the planet and the world population.
The UK Packaging Pact, introduced in April 2026, is aimed at getting big names in industry to reduce their packaging waste.
It builds on the success of the UK Plastics Pact, led by WRAP, which brought together 200 businesses to reduce plastic waste.
Through recycling, it created a circular economy of plastics in packaging, to reduce the amount of waste polluting the natural environment.
Between 2018 and 2025, it achieved a 99.8 per cent reduction in problematic or unnecessary plastic items. At the same time, it tripled recycled content and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from virgin plastic by 20 per cent.
By 2025, 71.6 per cent of plastic packaging in the UK had become reusable or recyclable. It also achieved an average of 28 per cent of recycled content across all packaging, and 51 per cent in PET bottles.
The Pact helped to encourage recycling uptake among businesses and the public, with nine in ten citizens recycling regularly and recycling becoming 53 per cent effective.
Consequently, an impressive 700 million problematic plastics have been eliminated, 99 per cent of rigid plastics are now recyclable and 100 per cent of PET bottles.
There has also been a £6.2 million saving in modulated fees from packaging redesign.
Some of these outcomes were the result of big brands making changes to their packaging. These include Yorkshire Tea removing plastic outer wrap across core ranges, which has saved 260 tonnes of plastic every year.
Waitrose reduced the amount of metal pump parts going to landfill every year by 75,000 by replacing them with recyclable alternatives.
Furthermore, Cadbury & Tesco replaced the outer wraps on 1.8 million Crunchie multipacks, which reduced plastic use by 80 per cent.
While these changes have been very impressive, WRAP wants to extend the programme to include all packaging, hence the introduction of the UK Packaging Pact.
The ten-year project will bring together businesses to make a change to the packaging system.
The aim of the agreement is to keep materials in the packaging chain and out of the environment by circulating the packaging.
This will have a positive impact on the UK’s natural environment, as well as climate change on the whole, as well as reducing packaging costs across industries.
More than 100 organisations have already joined the scheme, including Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Highland Spring, UniLever, Yeo Valley, Tesco, and M&S.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is also part of the programme, which will work towards four main goals.
These include:
The materials that will be included in the Pact are plastics, glass, metal and paper, which means it will affect multiple sectors and could potentially have a huge impact on recycling, and ultimately, environmental protection.
Its aim is to transform the UK’s packaging system so that all materials go through a circular economy through a system of recycling and reprocessing.
This will place a big demand on conveyor belt maintenance companies, which will need to make sure packaging is being reprocessed at a fast enough rate for it to be reused successfully.
Recycling centres may need more investment to ensure all the packaging can be reprocessed effectively and efficiently.
This means conveyor belts will be working over time to ensure manufacturers receive the packaging promptly so they can get their products to the retailers promptly, and there are no problems in the supply chain.
The UK Packaging Pact is a very important development, not just for businesses, but for everyone.
According to the World Bank’s What A Waste (3.0) report, if things were left as they currently are, global waste could reach 3.86 tonnes by 2050. This represents a 50 per cent increase in less than 30 years.
The report also revealed the world is producing waste faster than anticipated. This could be the result of rapid urbanisation, an increased consumption of goods, and poor capacity of local waste facilities.
If business continues as usual, GHG emissions are expected to increase by 43 per cent on 2022 levels due to the growth of waste. This represents a rise to 1.84 billion tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere from 1.28 billion in 2022.
Companies that have signed up to the UK Packaging Pact will commit to reducing waste through the large-scale recycling scheme.
By joining the Pact, they have the power to have an impact on the regulation, be part of building the systems that make the reusing process work effectively, access early guidance to stay ahead of the game, and reduce extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees by limiting material use.
Chief executive officer of PackUK, which has joined the Pact, said: “This ambitious initiative represents the collaborative approach we need to drive real, lasting change.”
He went on to say: “No single organisation can solve the packaging challenge alone – but by pooling expertise and insights across industry and government, we can break down the barriers and accelerate the shift to truly circular packaging at scale.”
Anyone who signs up to the programme over the next ten years will be part of the evolving recycled packaging system.
The UK’s ultimate aim is to halve GHG emissions by 2030 from 2019 levels and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. These changes in British packaging, and the businesses involved, could go a long way to enabling the country to meet its ambitious targets.