23 July 2026

The Flexible Plastic Fund (FPF) has warned that delaying mandatory kerbside collections of flexible plastic packaging from March 2027 to 1 April 2030 risks future investment and growth across the UK, slowing progress and weakening the UK's domestic capacity to meet recycled content obligations. 

Gareth Morton, Discovery Manager at Ecosurety and FPF Lead said “As the UK's centre of collaboration for flexible plastic packaging, responsible for the largest UK trial for household collections, we are deeply concerned by this announcement. Defra's 'extensive engagement with the sector' did not include the Flexible Plastic Fund, despite holding the most comprehensive evidence base on how to make household collections of flexible plastics work effectively.”  

The FPF's landmark FlexCollect project, developed in partnership with government, local authorities, waste management companies and the recycling industry ran from 2022 to 2025 collecting over 400 tonnes of flexible plastic packaging from 160,000 households.  The findings conclusively demonstrated that kerbside collection of flexible plastics is practical, cost-effective and strongly supported by residentshouseholds. 

Following confirmation by Defra in 2023, industry has been gearing itself up for widespread kerbside collections of flexibles in 2027 with some 70% of local authorities saying they would introduce it by the deadline. The FPF now urges a phased transition plan is necessary to restore industry and investor confidence and support remaining local authorities and waste management companies as they prepare for the new deadline. To make this a reality, government, producers and the waste sector must work together to establish a clear delivery roadmap, setting out local authority readiness, key milestones and clear responsibilities. 

At the same time, greater transparency on how EPR fees are being used to recover costs and support the rollout of household collections will be important to maintain confidence in the transition to a circular economy for flexible plastics. Continued recognition of front-of-store collections during the delay period will also be essential to ensure producers are not penalised while they continue to provide a vital collection route for consumers until kerbside collections are available nationally. 

UK Packaging Sustainability Lead for Pepsico and FPF spokesperson, Gareth Callan added “A three-year delay does not simply pause progress; it risks destroying investor confidence at the very point when the UK needs to scale up its domestic reprocessing capacity.  We look forward to working with Defra this Autumn to agree how organisations across the recycling system can continue building collection, sorting and recycling capacity over the next three years rather than leaving the sector facing a single, high-risk deadline in 2030.” 

The FPF FlexCircular project, launched earlier this year as a follow up to FlexCollect to investigate end markets and demand drivers for flexible plastic, will continue apace and publish its findings later this year. The project aims to:  

1. Quantify demand from UK converters for post-consumer recyclates out to 2040 

2. Estimate the quantity of flexible plastic packaging available from households and businesses out to 2040 

3. Determine the types and number of recycling facilities required — including secondary sorting, mechanical recycling, chemical recycling and future technologies 

4. Estimate the approximate capital investment required to deliver UK infrastructure 

5. Identify which policy mechanisms are needed to align the value chain and support UK processing 

6. Explore the economics of UK recycling versus export.