In March 2026, over 68,000 people from schools, households, community groups and workplaces across the UK counted their plastic waste for one week as part of The Big Plastic Count. Together, they counted over 1.5 million pieces of plastic, equivalent to UK households throwing away 82 billion pieces of plastic every year. Only 16% of this is recycled.
The Big Plastic Count showed that 82% of household plastic waste came from food and drink products. An estimated 13 billion pieces of fruit and veg packaging are thrown away every year. 63% of fruit and veg packaging was soft plastic which is almost impossible to recycle at scale. 93% of The Big Plastic Count participants say they would prefer to buy loose produce if it were available.
Read the full report here.