Britons dispose of nearly 100bn pieces of plastic packaging a year, survey finds
UK households throw away nearly 100bn pieces of plastic packaging a year, according to a survey by Greenpeace.
The results of one of the largest voluntary research projects into the scale of plastic waste show that only 12% of the single-use packaging used by households is sent for recycling.
Greenpeace asked households to count their plastic waste during one week in May. Nearly 250,000 people from almost 100,000 households took part and sent their results to Greenpeace and fellow NGO Everyday Plastic.
By far the largest proportion of plastic waste was from food and drink packaging – 83% – with the most common item being fruit and vegetable packaging.
While the UK government publishes data on the weight of plastic waste being collected from households, there are no official figures about the number of plastic items being thrown away. So the research, known as the Big Plastic Count, is being seen as providing a significant insight into the scale of single use plastic packaging waste.
The Big Plastic Count found that 97,948 households across the UK counted 6,437,813 pieces of plastic packaging waste. On average, each household threw away66 pieces of plastic packaging in one week, which amounts to an estimated 3,432 pieces when applied over a year.
Assuming the weekly average is typical of every household in the UK, the researchers said it could be reasonably estimated that households throw away 1.85bn pieces of plastic packaging a week, equating to 96.6bn pieces a year in the UK alone.
A landmark study in 2019 found that the proliferation of single-use plastic around the world is accelerating the climate emergency and needs to be urgently halted. Nearly all plastic is made from fossil fuels, the research by the Center for
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