Pladis Case Study: Packaging
01 January 2018
pladis saw a gap in the market around the recycling of biscuit wrappers. In July 2012, they began working with TerraCycle, an organisation specialising in ‘recycling the non-recyclable’, to provide a service that allows consumers to recycle their biscuit wrappers.
Topics
Sectors
- Biscuits, Crackers, Rusks
In July 2012, pladis began working with TerraCycle, an organisation specialising in ‘recycling the non-recyclable’, to provide a service that allows consumers to recycle their biscuit wrappers.
The process allows consumers to drop off their wrappers at one of over 700 recycling points around the country, which are operated by individuals, schools, retailers and community groups. The operators then send their waste packaging to TerraCycle and earn points, which can be redeemed for charitable donations.
Collectors can also sign up to become ‘Location Leaders’, coordinating and promoting the programme in their community. Collection locations at supermarkets, schools and community centres, are designed to make the enture process as simple as possible.
Special contests are run where operators of recycling points compete to win prizes. These contests always lead to a large spike in the volume of packaging being recycled, and to more donations in the long-term.
Since the partnership began, the volume of packaging being collected and recycled has grown year-on-year. There are now over 700 public locations across the UK & Ireland. In this time, over 10 million units of packaging that would have been sent to landfill, have now been recycled
To continue growing this partnership, and increasing the amount of packaging that is diverted from landfill, pladis has now extended its partnership with TerraCycle until 2022.
*All figures correct as August 2020
“Our exclusive partnership with TerraCycle is a programme we’re extremely proud of at pladis. It aims to tackle the recycling challenge we have with biscuit wrappers in the UK and we can see it’s making a noticeable change. “We believe it’s important to offer biscuit lovers a way to recycle their biscuit wrappers, and in doing so limit their impact on the environment. Through our partnership with TerraCycle, we’re helping our consumers to achieve this goal.”
Company Secretary and Director of Legal Affairs, pladis