Is this finally the start of the UK’s packaging revolution?

If the past eight years have taught the food and drink industry anything, it is that ambition alone is no match for reality. (This is especially true when that reality includes Brexit, Covid, extreme weather, soaring inflation and a depressing succession of global conflicts…)

Despite all that, there was a palpable sense of anticipation as “the great and the good of the packaging world” gathered at Sustainable Ventures in County Hall last night for the launch of Wrap’s new 10-year UK Packaging Pact. 

As the natural successor to the UK Plastics Pact, which launched in 2018, the new programme signals a shift away from setting punchy targets and towards steady progress against shared goals. Could this, finally, be the starting point of the UK’s packaging revolution?

Wrap chair Seb Munden’s rallying call captured the mood neatly. Looking back over the past eight years, he described the level of consensus achieved across government, industry, NGOs and local authorities as “extraordinary”. But he was also candid about how fragile (and rare) that alignment can be.

Unforeseen shocks, including Covid and Brexit, had knocked the original pact off course, costing it “two to three years” of progress. The priority now, he said, must be to move forward “while the door is open”.

System-wide change

That sense of urgency was shared by the room, with a universal feeling that the industry has reached the limits of what small, incremental changes can achieve. Keen to be part of this next phase, 100 retailers, brands and industry bodies have – depite a slow start – stumped up the £42,000 joining fee to be a part of the decade-long programme.

The first time round, much of the work was about setting targets. “Back in 2018, many organisations didn’t even have targets,” Munden reminded the audience. “Now everyone does. This is about delivering all those promises you made.”

Wrap chief executive Catherine David was also explicit about that shift. This pact, she told members, marks a transition from compliance-driven tweaks to system-wide change. Soaring energy and oil prices, growing regulatory complexity and escalating consumer expectations mean packaging has “no choice but to change”. 

Brandishing a Rubik’s Cube as her metaphor, David described a system riddled with interconnected problems that “no single organisation can solve alone”. The new pact, she argued, is the platform where those pieces finally come together. Rather than focusing on shared ambitions, it is more concerned with fixing the problems that have stalled previous progress: fragmented infrastructure, overlapping data demands and the sheer difficulty of getting reuse and refill to operate at scale.

That focus is evident in how Wrap plans to work with members. Adam Herriott, the organisation’s senior plastics specialist, made clear that a one‑size‑fits‑all approach is being replaced by more tailored support, reflecting the different pressures and priorities businesses face. While packaging redesign can still deliver those incremental gains, he pointed to larger, industry-wide challenges as being the real nuts to crack.

The scale of the challenge remains daunting, particularly as attention turns to inconsistencies in data collection and the limits of existing infrastructure. Over the next 18 to 24 months, identifying and unblocking those “pinch points” will be critical. Lessons from the original Plastics Pact will help shape that work. Herriott pointed to the near‑disappearance of black plastic from shelves to show what co-ordinated action can achieve.

This time though, the emphasis is reducing reporting burdens, aligning data and keeping everyone moving in the same direction. A detailed roadmap is due later this year, with the first formal reporting cycle beginning in 2027.

Good intentions 

There is no escaping the fact that this pact launches with far less fanfare than its predecessor. In part that is because Blue Planet fever is no longer at its peak, but more fundamentally, it reflects a hard‑won understanding of how easily economic shocks, political upheaval and any number of other unseen bumps in the road can derail good intentions.

There are, of course, problems yet to be navigated. Some in the industry fear that mandatory reuse requirements could impose costs that make extended producer responsibility (EPR) look modest by comparison. And there’s no escaping that this pact is being launched at a time when economic and geopolitical pressures are taking centre stage and crowding out long‑term thinking.

But there are also reasons for optimism. The UK’s realignment with the EU on aspects of food and drink regulation opens the door to learning from – and plugging into – initiatives already underway elsewhere. France’s resuse push, which has seen hundreds of SKUs shift to new formats, offers a glimpse of what scaled intervention can look like.

The truth is, this pact arrives with less fanfare precisely because the industry is older and wiser. It knows how easily good intentions can be derailed, but it also knows that the window for transformation is narrowing.

The world isn’t about to change overnight, but a real revolution is still needed. The question now is whether, amid all the noise and pressures of the real world, this one will finally be met with action.