The political economies of plastic packaging recycling: addressing persistent challenges concerning recyclability in and beyond Greater Manchester

A photo of plastic items

Society needs to fundamentally reimagine its relationship with plastic packaging.

Recycling remains a core and complicated component of the reimagining required.

The OECD’s Global Plastics Outlook estimates that a measly 9% of plastic waste was recycled in 2019. Even in places that fare better than the global average, such as the UK, where it is predicted the figure stood at 55% in 2023, vast improvements are needed to stem the flow of plastic packaging into landfill and incineration.

The UK government accepts the ‘need to drive better quantity and quality in recycling’, with stark social and environmental implications carried with inertia.

This three-year interdisciplinary research project, facilitated by a Hallsworth Research Fellow with a focus on External Engagement and Impact, investigates what is needed to tackle the challenges of improving UK plastic packaging recycling.

It is widely accepted that the challenges and related opportunities, mirroring the politics of plastic packaging, have diverse social, material, and economic roots.

The project explores these roots through case study research and stakeholder engagement activities premised on gathering expert insights from across the plastic packaging supply chain (i.e., from packaging producers and recyclers; retailers; national policymakers; and local authorities).

This includes the organisation of the Everyday Flexible Plastic Packaging Recycling Assembly –a unique independent forum for in-depth professional knowledge exchange and development on the challenges wrapped up with typically hard-to-recycle plastics. Crucially, the forum involves stakeholders from across the value chain, including representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises, multinational corporations, universities, local government, third sector and other organisations. A link to the ‘Briefing paper: organisational challenges, priorities, and required responses’, produced following the first assembly, follows below.

The focus of the assembly echoes the research project’s wider framing and its address of the following key questions:

  • Why does plastic packaging recycling remain a persistent challenge?
  • What are the capacities of UK organisations to reimagine and change society’s relationships with plastic packaging?
  • What are the similarities, differences, and tensions between organisational practices and strategies?
  • How could efforts be aligned to improve UK plastic packaging recycling?

By addressing these questions, the research project contributes crosscutting knowledge, focused on positively impacting sustainable transitions.

If you would like to learn more, please get in contact with Dr Torik Holmes: torik.holmes@manchester.ac.uk