Valuable new research into reuse and refill has been published by mobile refill service providers TOPUP TRUCK and the University of the Arts London (UAL), following a research and development project funded by UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge.
Sustainable online grocer Abel & Cole has won the ‘Green Initiative of the Year Award’ at the Retail Week Awards 2025 recently for its Club Zero Milk refillable milk service, an innovation breakthrough part funded by UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK.
Following successful in-store and online trials, the Refill Coalition has proved the viability of its refill and reuse solutions and is now planning to share the extensive learnings with industry through an Industry Webinar and White Paper with accompanying independent LifeCycle Assessment (LCA) to be published in May.
UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, will be at the Packaging Innovations 2025 next month (Stand L50, Feb 12 & 13, Birmingham NEC) and members of the SSPP team and Innovate UK Business Connect colleagues working in sustainable polymers will be on the stand.
Plastic pollution is a global issue, and data gathered through remote sensing has an increasingly important role to play in identifying and monitoring fugitive plastics in terrestrial and marine environments.
Innovate UK’s Global Research & Innovation in Plastics Sustainability conference 2024 (GRIPS 2024), delivered this year in partnership with the British Plastics Federation, was a resounding success, bringing some 600 delegates together to hear about the latest research, innovations and initiatives driving plastics sustainability and circularity.
Two projects funded by UKRI’s Smart Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, have scooped prizes recognising their efforts in developing scalable reuse and refill solutions that work for the whole supply chain.
On Fri 22 November 2024, BBC Radio Four’s Rare Earth Programme turned its attention to plastic and, in the context of our ever-growing reliance on plastic and the challenge of plastic pollution, asked “Who’s in charge: us or plastic?”.
Lancaster University researchers investigating attitudes, behaviours and practices around plastic food packaging have published a suite of reports to highlight their findings and offer recommendations to help reduce the UK’s plastic usage and contribute towards the UK Plastics Pact goals.
Innovate UK were partners of the 3-day Blue Earth Summit on the 16 -18th October. The UK Circular Plastics Network (UKCPN) funded the partnership, recognising the relevance of the summit to Innovate UK’s commitment to research and innovation in support of Net Zero and Sustainability.
