More On Soft Plastics Recycling

Soft plastics wrappings, were collected from Sainsbury and Tesco stores, with the promise the material would be 'recycled. Outrage was expressed, when a tracking study appeared to show a very high percentage of this material is simply burned. James Piper suggests that the fault largely lays with the supermarkets (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/04/soft-plastic-recycling-burned-con). Only clear, low density polyethylene wrapping is actually recyclable. Plastic wrapping comes in many varieties. The supermarkets thought, however, it would be too difficult for the general public to identify appropriate plastics. They consequently decided to use the simpler term 'soft plastics'. This consequently means the collected packages have to be sent abroad for hand-sorting. Workers are 'more economic' in such locations. Piper thinks a more honest message would have been along the lines 'Please bring your plastics here (we burn some of this)'. He points out that burning some of the collected soft plastics to generate electricity, is better than sending it to landfill. In landfill, such material generates both methane and hazardous microplastics. Perhaps the supermarkets might better exert their influences to a) minimise soft plastic wrappings and b) ensure that only clear, low density polyethylene is used, when wrapping is essential?