Winner: Flexible Plastic Fund - FlexCollect project - Ecosurety
The UK’s largest kerbside collection and recycling trial for flexible plastic packaging (FPP), the Flexible Plastic Fund FlexCollect Project has successfully created a commercially driven, highly practical blueprint for tackling one of the most challenging and under-recycled packaging formats in the industry – a feat some thought impossible.
FPP is widely used in the UK, with an estimated 215 billion items produced annually, yet fewer than 14% of local authorities collect it, and recycling rates remain low. The FlexCollect Project, a collaborative effort between multiple industry stakeholders including delivery partners such as Ecosurety, launched in 2022 to create a plan for change, testing scalable collection systems, measuring cost and providing real-world evidence on how it could be done. Its ambition from the outset has been to guide both industry and policymakers toward a genuinely viable model for recycling FPP ahead of the implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR).
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In the three years since launch, the project has executed no fewer than 10 pilot schemes across more than 160,000 households, gathering vast amounts of robust data on the costs involved and the infrastructure required. Key learnings include the ability to add FPP to existing collection services, the “innovative” use of collection bags to streamline separation and the fact that no major infrastructure investment is required to push ahead. Its years of in-depth analysis and evidence were presented in a final report launched at the House of Commons in September 2025.
Our judges were blown away by the scale and value of the FlexCollect Project’s efforts. “This has the potential to transform the policy landscape,” they said, delivering a “positive, cost-effective pathway for change” while underpinned by a number of core, commercially validated actions that government and the industry can put into practice to tackle a genuinely urgent issue.
Shortlisted:
- ABP UK – Prism 2030 Programme
- Ecosurety – Flexible Plastic Fund – FlexCollect project
- Lidl GB – Rooted in Responsibility: Driving Systemic Change through the Greenhouse
- Point74 with The Compleat Food Group and Sustained – A New Recipe for Sustainability
- Wildfarmed
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