UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, has revealed that its work has boosted UK plastics recycling infrastructure and enabled potential CO2e savings of more than 1.5 million tonnes between 2025 and 2030 as its funded projects come online and reach commercial scale operation.
The contribution of the £60 million Challenge to driving plastic packaging circularity and sustainability was detailed in an SSPP Celebration Report, launched at a showcase event at the Royal Society in London last week celebrating its completion. Among other achievements, the five-year funding programme has successfully:
- leveraged committed co-investment so far of circa £274m for innovative packaging solutions;
- supported new recycling infrastructure targeting difficult-to-recycle plastic waste streams and boosted UK-wide and regional growth and jobs; and
- supported the potential elimination of 17 million items of single-use plastic packaging so far and related CO2e savings of 30,000 tonnes through the development of alternative bio-based packaging materials and new reuse and refill solutions.
Delivering the Keynote Address at the event, Professor Margaret Bates, CEO of PackUK, Defra’s recently launched UK packaging Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme administrator, said: “In line with the government’s commitment to work with industry to stimulate economic growth, SSPP has harnessed the willingness of retailers, brands and the plastic packaging supply chain to engage and invest in innovation that supports resource efficiency and clean growth. It has attracted £274 million of co-investment to date, delivered new infrastructure on the ground in the UK, and challenged the art of the possible and the investible.”
World-leading innovation
Taking a collaborative, cross-sector approach, the Challenge has brought together academia, industry and the third sector to tackle the technical, commercial and behavioural challenges associated with plastic packaging waste. Its portfolio of over 80 funded projects have focused on driving a reduction in single-use plastic packaging, supporting the scale up of reuse and refill, increasing recycling, and reducing plastic pollution.
SSPP has supported many world-first innovations, including Mura Technology’s advanced recycling facility in Teesside that can recycle post-consumer plastic packaging, including ‘hard-to-recycle’ formats such as flexibles and multi-layered films, into circular hydrocarbons for use in the manufacturing of new plastic.
Dr Geoff Brighty, Head of Sustainability for Mura, says: “The SSPP funding has been a huge support. Not only has it enabled us to move forward rapidly with the construction of our plant, engineering procurement and project management, but it has also helped de-risk the project and attract other investors.
“More than that, it has brought about collaboration with new stakeholders, including the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick, whilst helping to raise awareness of our operation and this developing chemical processing sector to regulators. Strategically, that’s been massive for us.”
Maintaining momentum
The event in London not only celebrated the completion of the challenge and its impact, but also provided the opportunity to explore opportunities for further investment, innovation and collaboration in sustainable plastic packaging solutions.
“Now that the challenge has completed, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the enormous success of the challenge and the projects we have funded,” said SSPP Challenge Dr Paul Davidson, “There are still significant challenges ahead for the plastic packaging sector, but the progress that has been made through SSPP is a testament to the remarkable momentum behind plastic packaging innovation. The projects SSPP has supported are changing the plastic packaging landscape and making a real contribution to the UK’s clean growth agenda.”
The SSPP projects will continue to be supported through Innovate UK’s services and speaking at the event, Professor Sally Beken, Knowledge Transfer Manager – Polymers at Innovate UK Business Connect, said: “These innovators are already delivering transformative change across the sector and with continued support to access other investment and collaboration opportunities, they are sure to continue to shape the future of plastic waste reduction for years to come.”
Further information on SSPP-funded projects can be found here:
Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging 2025
Packaging Innovations Case Studies 2025
UKCPN: Case studies – SSPP Challenge: Enabling Research Programme
