Cheltenham and South Gloucestershire are the first local authorities to agree to trial kerbside collections of flexible plastic packaging under the Flexible Plastic Fund (FPF) FlexCollect project.
Cheltenham Borough Council already launched trial collections on 7 October 2022 while the South Gloucestershire pilot collections will begin on 17 October 2022 with approximately 2,000 selected households from parts of Bradley Stoke, Chipping Sodbury, Alveston and Olveston, providing them with greater accessibility for the collection and recycling of their flexible plastics.
FPF FlexCollect is the most extensive pilot for household collection and recycling of flexible packaging to be undertaken in the UK. Up to nine councils are to participate voluntarily in the three-year project.
“We are thrilled to welcome Cheltenham and South Gloucestershire as our first pilot local authorities. This is a truly collaborative endeavour by a wide partnership of organisations with a critical interest in the outcomes, and we’re looking forward to working closely with everyone over the next three years to build an understanding of how the UK is going to, not only collect but also recycle flexible plastic packaging once EPR is introduced” said Gareth Morton, Ecosurety’s lead for the project.
The project will run in two phases. South Gloucestershire Council and Cheltenham Borough Council are now part of the pioneer phase which involves a series of innovative flexible plastics household collection and recycling pilots across four local authorities. The second phase will see five more local authorities joining the project in 2023 to build on the gained knowledge.
FlexCollect received funding from the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge at UKRI which was announced in May 2022.
“This is an exciting step for such an initiative project that brings together local authorities, packaging producers and retailers, with the waste industry. This project will help us to learn how to collect plastic film from households as part of the regular kurbside collection schemes, which is a critical part of giving plastic packaging a more sustainable future. This is just the start and I look forward to seeing how this project progresses” commented Paul Davidson, Challenge Director for the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge.
Read the full release from EcoSurety here.
