Let’s imagine a future where every piece of packaging is designed to be part of something bigger. A future in which the can in your hand has lived (is living!) a full and circular life, fruit and veg are loose and free wherever you go, the laundry liquid bottle will be used again and again, and the bag holding your salad leaves can be easily recycled into something useful. Refillable packaging is easy to use and as commonplace as recycling bins.
Behind it all, imagine a connected system of government, businesses and innovators, recyclers, local authorities and citizens all powered by effective policy and innovation, building a truly circular packaging system.
That’s the vision the UK Packaging Pact will help create – a world where packaging is better for people and planet.
In April 2026, we will turn the page on an important chapter in UK packaging. When the UK Plastics Pact launched in 2018, it broke new ground - becoming the first of what are now 13 Pacts spanning 19 countries worldwide. Its blueprint has shown what’s possible when businesses, governments, and NGOs unite behind a shared vision.
Seven years on, the transformation has been significant: the Pact has helped remove 33 billion problematic items from the supermarket shelves, recycled content has tripled - driving reduction of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions*, and businesses are now far better prepared for incoming policy because of their involvement in the Pact.
The Pact has eliminated unnecessary items, rethought design, and brought reuse into the mainstream in a way that simply wouldn’t have happened at this scale without collective action.
Why it matters
The past few years have tested every part of the system - from the shock of a global pandemic to delays in policy implementation and ongoing gaps in recycling infrastructure, which have inevitably slowed delivery against some of the original objectives set in 2018. Yet the Pact has held firm, proving that progress is possible even in the toughest conditions. When businesses, governments and NGOs move together, barriers become stepping stones.
Packaging touches every home, every day - getting it right is both a business challenge and a social and environmental imperative. Circular design, reuse and investment in recycling are not separate goals, they’re how we build a system that works for people and the planet alike.
That’s where the Pact comes in - and why the work must continue, finding solutions collaboratively and sharing learning with government to help shape smarter and more effective regulation.
Now, a new wave of reform is on the horizon. Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR), Simpler Recycling, and the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will reshape the landscape. But regulation alone won’t make circularity happen - people and businesses will.
The UK Packaging Pact will play a vital role in ensuring we realise the benefits of the recycling reforms, helping us work through challenges together, drawing on the sector’s expertise and creating alignment. The Pact will support the implementation of key initiatives such as Deposit Return Schemes (DRS), plastic bags and wrapping collections, and the scale up of infrastructure investment that aren’t covered by EPR fees. The Pact will help drive initiatives like DRS, plastic bags and wrapping collections, and the scale-up of recycling infrastructure that sit beyond EPR’s funding remit. By bringing industry and government together to share evidence, align ambitions and coordinate action, the Pact will help ensure smooth implementation and channel investment where it’s needed most.
The groundwork is firmly in place, and businesses are now better positioned than ever to deliver on these commitments over the next decade - supported by the evidence base, and the collaborative muscle we’ve grown together. The UK Packaging Pact will turn that foundation into the next phase of transformation.
What the UK Packaging Pact will deliver
The new Pact has been shaped through extensive consultation. Guided by a Temporary Steering Group of 58 businesses spanning the entire supply chain, and informed by direct conversations with Defra, PackUK, NGOs, brands, retailers, and waste and recycling partners, it reflects a truly collective effort.
The four bold interconnected goals below are anchored in what stakeholders told us matters most for accelerating transformation:
Goal 1: Optimise Packaging
Help businesses reduce their impact by eliminating unnecessary packaging, increasing recycled content, making packaging recyclable, and cutting reliance on virgin non-renewable resources. This will reduce costs, remove items that hinder recycling, and support the shift towards more sustainable systems.
Goal 2: Scale Reuse and Refill
Through collaboration, innovation, and shared learning, we will accelerate practical reuse and refill solutions. That means driving standardisation, building infrastructure, and making models easy and accessible for citizens.
Goal 3: Support Circular Infrastructure Investment
Convene businesses, investors, and government to create the evidence base and confidence needed to unlock critical infrastructure investment - ensuring materials collected for recycling are recycled while also supporting a thriving UK recycling industry.
Goal 4: Harmonise Data
Work with industry and government to simplify reporting, building an efficient data ecosystem that will reduce administrative burdens and drive impact through traceability.
Tackling the toughest challenges
We know where the system still fails - from the absence of a national solution for flexible plastics and films, to under-investment in recycling infrastructure and a lack of standardisation across reporting frameworks that hinders better packaging design and sourcing decisions. The Pact will convene business, government and investors to lead the fixes needed, helping to drive up recycling rates from today’s 44% towards 65%.
What makes the Pact different
Voluntary agreements like the UK Plastics Pact have shown that collective action can accelerate change. The UK Packaging Pact takes this system-wide - expanding beyond plastics to all packaging and creating a truly joined-up vision for change.
Government and industry are aligned in recognising that while regulation sets the framework, voluntary collaboration remains essential to accelerate progress on the ground.
We know the challenges ahead - but we also know that businesses want to act, and can act faster and more effectively when they collaborate.
Looking ahead
We’ve seen first-hand the determination across the sector - from supermarket aisles where clear bottles replace green to improve recyclability, and where plastic cutlery, straws and PVC trays have disappeared. Excess packaging has been removed on tea bags and crisp packets, and brands redesigned toothpaste tubes to be recyclable and now being collected in more and more local areas across the country due to our collaboration through the UK Plastics Pact.
Behind every success are people - packaging designers re-engineering materials, local authority leaders trialling new collection models, CEOs and sustainability teams driving circularity, and officials shaping the regulatory framework. It’s this shared determination that makes the Pact work.
Yet challenges remain. The UK Packaging Pact isn’t just a continuation. It’s an acceleration.
We invite all businesses across the packaging value chain to join us in shaping the systems, standards and solutions that will define circular packaging for the next decade.
How you can get involved:
- Join our webinar on Tuesday 14 October for an in-depth look at the Pact framework and how you can get involved.
- Attend our panel discussion at London Packaging Week - hosted by WRAP Chair Sebastian Munden on Wednesday 15 October, 12:00–12:45 pm, featuring speakers from Tesco, WWF, SUEZ and GoUnpackaged as they explore how collaboration can turn the UK Packaging Pact’s vision into action.
*based on the 2024/25 (penultimate) annual report due for publication in November 2025 - the final UK Plastics Pact report due Autumn 2026.