Plastic production ‘out of control’ as UK households throw away 1.6bn pieces every week
According to a recent comprehensive study, UK households throw away an estimated 1.6 billion pieces of plastic packaging every week.
More than 68,000 people across the country meticulously recorded their plastic waste in the Great Plastic Count, organized by Everyday Plastic, between March 9-15.
The findings, released Wednesday, revealed that participants collectively threw away 1.5 million items during a week-long observation.
When extrapolated to represent all UK households, this figure rises to around 1.6 billion items per week, or around 82 billion per year.
This year’s count marks the third such initiative, following previous efforts in 2022 and 2024. \Two years ago, a larger sample size backed by Greenpeace suggested a higher destruction rate of 1.7 billion pieces per week, or 90 billion pieces per year.
A significant 82 percent of recorded plastic waste came from food and drink packaging; The most common category was fruits and vegetables.
Everyday Plastic estimates that 13 billion pieces of plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables alone are thrown away by UK households each year.
The survey highlighted that Tesco and Sainsbury’s together account for almost half (46 per cent) of fruit and vegetable packaging counted.
Almost two-thirds of fruit and vegetable packaging is made from soft film plastic, which is difficult to recycle on a large scale in the UK and most is eventually incinerated.
Burning plastic can contribute to air pollution and climate change, while incinerators tend to be located near poorer communities, further exacerbating health inequality.
The UK also exports waste, including plastic, mostly to poorer countries with less developed waste infrastructure.
Daniel Webb, founder of Everyday Plastic, said plastic waste had become a “national crisis” and argued that the key to tackling the problem was to reduce production rather than simply increase recycling.
“The Great Plastic Count shows once again that plastic production is out of control, with billions of pieces of plastic being thrown away every week,” he said.
“Recycling can’t keep up with the volume produced and we’re burning more than ever before. There’s no way around this.”
Everyday Plastic is calling on the Government to remove plastic packaging from uncut fruit and vegetables by 2030, immediately halt the construction of new incinerators and end the export of plastic waste to other countries.
Recent efforts to reach an international plastics agreement have been stalled multiple times by disagreements over whether to impose binding global limits on plastic production.
Beth Gardiner, journalist and author of Plastic Inc: Big Oil, Big Money and the Plot to Waste Our Future, said: “Although many of us are trying to use less plastic, fossil fuel and petrochemical companies are introducing more into our lives every year.
“Now, with clean energy and electric vehicles threatening its profits, Big Oil is pouring billions of dollars into plans to double or even triple plastic production.”
He added that the plastic count meant tens of thousands of people had helped “shine a critically important light on this dangerous strategy”.
Everyday Plastic said the next survey will be held next year in 2027.
