NLWA's Chair Councillor Jacob Cable has responded to Defra's announcement that the mandatory collection of flexible plastics for recycling will be delayed. Under Simpler Recycling regulations, local authorities were expected to begin kerbside collections of flexible plastics in March 2027; this has now been pushed back to 2030.
Councillor Cable said:
"The Government’s decision to delay mandatory collections of flexible plastics until 2030 is a recognition that simply telling councils to collect more material does not, on its own, lead to a more circular economy. The real priority must be reducing the use of hard-to-recycle materials, particularly unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging, while ensuring that any material collected can actually be reprocessed into new products.
"NLWA has been working with the sector to try and find ways to get flexible plastics from households recycled, but the UK lacks the infrastructure to process it at scale, so mandatory collections could have led to stockpiles of material sitting in warehouses with limited recycling routes. Reducing the production of flexible plastics must always remain the priority, alongside developing more sustainable alternatives.
"This delay must not be treated as a pause. Government, producers and the waste sector should use the additional time to deliver policy and infrastructure changes. That means accelerating action to reduce the prevalence of hard-to-recycle materials, creating stronger incentives for packaging redesign, and investing in UK sorting and reprocessing capacity to manage the material that remains.
"If the next four years are used effectively, the country can move towards a system that prioritises waste prevention, supports local authorities, and ensures that materials collected from households are genuinely recycled rather than exported, stockpiled or incinerated."