The Flex Factor: Single-use bags on the rise and the UK’s struggle to recycle soft plastics

Recent data published by DEFRA shows a 7% increase in plastic single-use carrier bag sales in 2024/25 although many retailers have moved to a plastic or paper “bag for life” model, which is excluded from these statistics. So, what is behind this trend of increased single-use carrier bag use? Has everyone reached peak tote bag supply? Or have we collectively reached a point where green fatigue has set in? With wars, famine, financial difficulties and a poor job market, have we just got bigger problems?

Despite knowing the environmental impact of single-use plastic, people often forget to take their reusable bags with them. Buying a single-use bag is a low-cost, convenient solution in the moment and often is a small cost compared to the sum of the items being bought. Additionally, the ingrained habit of using single-use bags for decades is a challenging habit to break entirely. The UK has also seen a period of high inflation, with the British Retail Consortium projecting that food prices will increase by 4.2% on average in the latter half of 2025. People may therefore be opting to shop more often to better manage their budgets and expenditure, therefore making it more likely they will forget to take their reusable bags with them. In addition, the increase in online shopping where single-use bags are still the norm, is likely to be a significant contributing factor.

As external stressors, such as austerity, impact on people’s psychological well-being, their capacity and motivation to engage with behaviours that are seen as environmental or green in nature can be reduced. Such behaviours are perceived as a “luxury” or secondary concern to many of the public, and governments and the media often reinforce this belief by justifying actions to reduce green commitments by claiming that they will negatively affect the job market or economic growth.

Perhaps the price for convenience is also being paid because the public is under the misapprehension that flexible plastics can be easily recycled. Simpler Recycling will require the collection of flexible plastic at the kerbside from 2027, and perhaps this awareness (alongside the increases in flexible plastic collections that have already taken place) is fuelling a perception that it doesn't matter if we create such plastic waste, as it will be recycled.

The FlexCollect report shows high success rates from the trials in terms of amounts captured, impact on collection services and material quality; however, it also highlights the capacity gap in terms of UK recycling infrastructure. The UK already relies heavily on exports to manage plastic waste (with serious questions that need to be asked about where that material is really ending up and whether it is being recycled), and the closure of some key UK processing capacity (recently by Biffa and Viridor, equating to ~200,000 tonnes per year) highlights the complexities of plastics recycling. Flexible plastics are notoriously difficult to recycle in a financially viable way, and plastics reprocessors have highlighted the challenge of competing with the low cost of virgin plastic in a saturated global market. Whilst pEPR will in theory cover the net cost of recovery for these materials, it is not at all clear how that income might flow back to investments in local processing infrastructure. The Government is committed to local authorities collecting this material, and it therefore needs to provide support and funding to the industry to make it happen.

Another critical factor affecting the whole plastics market is the pace of legislative change. The Resources and Waste Management Strategy was launched in 2018, and 7 years on many of the proposals that local authorities and recyclers were relying on to boost recycling rates, have not yet been implemented. There is hope on the horizon with Simpler Recycling for householders from next year and flexible plastics the following year, but will it be too late for UK’s plastic recycling industry? Time will tell.

Are you facing challenges with the practicalities of collecting flexible plastic? If so, get in touch!