Labelling rules change to support flexibles recycling

This move will bring PP flexible packaging into line with PE films, significantly broadening the range of soft packaging consumers can recycle at front of store.

Based on supermarket and brand plans delivering on commitments under The UK Plastics Pact and supported by the £1 million Flexible Plastics Fund, OPRL is confident collections will be widely available across the UK (ie to more than 75% of the population) for non-metallised mono-polymer polypropylene film by January 2022, and that the material will be sorted and go on for processing into new packaging and products. PP films with less than 5 percent PE or EVOH can therefore be labelled with OPRL’s Special Films label from next January, as PE films. Work is in hand to establish the availability of processing capacity and functioning markets for metallised crisp, snack and chocolate wrappers, also covered by some of the new in-store collections network, in the hope that these too can be labelled as recyclable in the near future.