What does the future of packaging sustainability look like in the UK, and how will the new UK Packaging Pact shape the next decade of progress? Last week’s “WRAP UK Plastics Pact Connect: Sustaining Legacy, Powering Progress” event provided clear insights into achievements to date, lessons learned, and the evolving policy landscape. Below is a concise, practical summary of what businesses should know.
The morning sessions highlighted how far the UK Plastics Pact has come. WRAP emphasised measurable progress in:
However, key challenges remain:
Collection systems still vary significantly, affecting consumer behaviour, recycling performance, and investment planning. (See WRAP’s resources for further detail: https://wrap.org.uk)
Businesses continue to face difficult trade-offs between recyclability, carbon impact, performance and cost.
The scale of investment required to expand reprocessing capacity remains a major barrier.
These insights align with wider policy developments, including:
This policy uncertainty is already shaping strategic decisions across supply chains.
WRAP outlined key details for the UK Packaging Pact, which will significantly broaden the programme beyond plastics.
Timeline
Scope and focus areas
The new Pact will aim to:
Moving beyond plastics to create a holistic framework for sustainability.
Reflecting growing interest from retailers and regulators.
Including reprocessing, reuse systems and future-fit logistics.
One of the strongest themes of the day, businesses need coherent, consistent data to meet regulatory and commercial demands.
WRAP is particularly focused on data-mapping exercises, including the relationship between material flow and data flow, and where these two diverge. This aligns directly with the work we undertake through PackFlow and the broader data management and insight capabilities within Valpak. Our extensive product and packaging database provides a robust foundation for understanding real-world packaging flows and the quality and consistency of the data that underpins them.
Through this work, our reporting provides visibility of:
Given the depth of Valpak’s data assets and our experience translating complex datasets into actionable insights, discussions will continue regarding how our expertise can best support the Data Harmonisation workstream of the new UK Packaging Pact.
PackFlow’s existing reports, available on our dedicated website, already provide the UK’s most robust and widely used insights into packaging flows. If you haven’t yet explored them, you can visit our PackFlow website for more information.
Our work supports:
We also support internal teams and external programmes by mapping exactly where material and data flows align, and where they do not.
For readers needing more context on obligations, our internal guidance is available on the Packaging Producer Responsibility section of the Valpak website.
The transition from the UK Plastics Pact to the broader UK Packaging Pact marks a significant moment for packaging sustainability. With stronger emphasis on system-wide data, harmonisation, and multi-material optimisation, businesses will need reliable evidence and clear insights to meet future expectations.
PackFlow is already positioned to support this evolution.
Visit our PackFlow website to explore existing reports and insights.
Get in touch to discuss how we can support WRAP’s Data Harmonisation work, or how we can help your organisation understand its material flow and data flow challenges.
