Retail and food manufacturer sources have warned supermarkets may scrap their popular soft plastic collection services, as companies lose faith that the government has the plans needed to create a circular economy for hard-to-recycle plastic.
Earlier this month, ministers delayed the start of mandatory kerbside collection of soft plastics in England until 2030, three years after it was due to launch under Simpler Recycling regulations.
This week retailers and producers told The Grocer the decision had delivered a hammer blow to hopes that the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system would result in a major investment into a local authority recycling infrastructure.
There are calls for the government to reconsider its decision to avoid what one source decribed as an “irretrievable loss” in confidence in the transition to a circular economy for flexible plastics.
“Continued recognition of front-of-store collections during the delay period will be essential to ensure producers are not penalised [by paying EPR] while they continue to provide a vital collection route for consumers until kerbside collections are available nationally,” said Gareth Morton, lead for Flexible Plastic Fund, a collaboration of leading food companies including the likes of Nestlé, Unilever and Mars, who accused Defra of ignoring evidence from the industry on how to create a market for flexible plastic.
“We are deeply concerned by this announcement,” added Morton. “Defra’s ‘extensive engagement with the sector’ did not include the Flexible Plastic Fund, despite us holding the most comprehensive evidence base on how to make household collections of flexible plastics work effectively.”
The FPF’s landmark FlexCollect project saw over 400 tonnes of flexible plastic collected from 2022 to 2025 from 160,000 households, which it said conclusively demonstrated that kerbside collection was “practical, cost-effective and strongly supported.”
However, Defra’s decision to delay has now posed major questions over what’s next for flexible plastic amid growing anger that companies are paying sky high EPR fees without a resulting step change in recycling infrastructure.
Asked if they were worried that retailers would close down front-of-store collection services if thought they were not being rewarded with lower EPR bills, a leading source told The Grocer: “It’s a concern, yes.”
“Collection schemes are expensive to run and retailers are already paying into the EPR system.
“We have also heard concerns expressed that the delay with flexible plastic bumps into DRS and there may not be enough space for both schemes at the same time.
“That could be a reason to either withdraw schemes sooner rather than later or push for a delay to DRS.”
A retail source told The Grocer retailers and producers were becoming increasingly disillusioned over the lack of vision to see EPR deliver on its promises.
“To delay the collection of flexibles by three years has sent out the worst possible signal to retailers who are spending fortunes on these collection services whilst paying huge sums into EPR.
“The whole deal was that they’d collect and reprocess flexibles and the government has gone back on it, and has zero plans for investment in our sclerotic infrastructure.
“With inadequate infrastructure to reprocess these materials, and a broken market, producers will wonder why they’re spending all this money on a promise that recycling systems will improve, when they clearly are not.”
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability policy at the BRC said: “Retailers acknowledge their responsibility to ensure local authorities are paid for collecting and segregating waste packaging, but the EPR scheme promised much more.
“The failure to make progress in recycling soft plastics is another indication of the lack of planning and strategy in delivering a comprehensive EPR system.
“The government needs to quickly demonstrate that fees charged via higher prices for consumers will lead to the world-class recycling system we all want and were promised.”
Meanwhile Scotland has followed Wales by announcing it has no plans to change its approach to flexible plastic despite England’s delay, confirming it remains committed to introducing separate collections for flexible plastic packaging for businesses from March 2027.
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