Businesses sign up to UK Plastics Pact

Over 40 leading UK businesses have signed up to the newly launched UK Plastics Pact and pledged to eradicate single-use plastics in their packaging.

The move stems from concerns over the impact plastic waste is having in polluting the environment, in particular the world's oceans and waterways.

The UK Plastics Pact, launched by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), is the first initiative of its kind globally, designed to bring together the entire plastics packaging value chain behind a common vision and ambitious set of targets.

Government ministers and environmental campaigners welcomed the pact, which consists of a series of targets that the industry as a whole will aim to meet by 2025. These commitments include:

• 30% average recycled content across all plastic packaging;
• 70% of plastic packaging effectively recycled or composted;
• eliminate completely all problematic or unnecessary single-use packaging items through re-design, innovation or alternative (reuse) delivery models;
• 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.

Businesses across major brands have signed up to the pact, with participants collectively responsible for more than 80% of the UK's plastic packaging in supermarkets. Companies who have taken the pledge so far include Asda, Nestle, Coca-Cola, P&G, Morrisons and Unilever, with the hope that other businesses will also adopt the pledge.

CEO of WRAP, Marcus Gover, commented: ''Together, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink and reshape the future of plastic so that we retain its value, and curtail the damage plastic waste wreaks on our planet. This requires a wholesale transformation of the plastics system and can only be achieved by bringing together all links in the chain under a shared commitment to act. That is what makes the UK Plastics Pact unique. It unites everybody, business and organisation with a will to act on plastic pollution. We will never have a better time to act, and together we can.''

The move was also welcomed by the Environment Secretary Michael Gove: ''Our ambition to eliminate avoidable plastic waste will only be realised if government, businesses and the public work together. Industry action can prevent excess plastic reaching our supermarket shelves in the first place. I am delighted to see so many businesses sign up to this pact and I hope others will soon follow suit.''