Plastics Packaging Portal project reveals insights

The project kicked off in August 2021 to address the lack of comprehensive, up-to-date data on the recyclability of packaging and where it can be recycled.

Funded by Innovate UK and led by OPRL with a consortium of leading industry players including Ecosurety, Dsposal, RECOUP and Open Data Manchester, the project aims to develop common data resources that can deliver public benefits, rather than commercial profit.

Crucially, the project is investigating how to support businesses, government and consumers to make better decisions on plastic packaging. For businesses in particular, this means they would have access to accurate and useful data at the design stage and in the development of plastic packaging to improve recyclability.

The project is now several months into a discovery stage and it has already delivered key insights from extensive stakeholder engagement activities, including multiple workshops and interviews. In total, the project has so far engaged with 42 organisations and has spoken to 36 people to identify and map the complex value chains, identifying the main points that relate to data.

Project report available now

Open Data Manchester is leading the research and has published a blog that summarises the key learns so far, including three identified main challenges that the industry faces.

Firstly respondents made clear that the lack of clarity with regards to the changing regulatory landscape for packaging EPR, DRS and the Plastic Packaging Tax presents a significant data challenge.

Data consistency throughout the value chain was identified as another significant problem to overcome, with common issues ranging from simple (yet all too frequent) human error when inputting data, to there being no single, unified use of terminology across the industry.

Thirdly, transparency of data was frequently cited as an issue, with end-to-end visibility of reliable data openly available to all stakeholders across the value chain - including brands, retailers and recyclers - being non-existent.