What are consumers' attitudes to recycling?

Viridor reports on how attitudes to recycling amongst consumers have changed and the role of business to deliver fully recycled plastic packaging.

A few of the highlights: 

Between 2016 and 2020 we have seen consumer concern for the environment intensify, but the opinion on the role of recycling as a solution to environmental concerns seems largely unchanged.

• Over the longer time period uncertainty on what happens to their recycling has increased. At the same time complexity around recycling has increased as well as the need for processes around recycling to become simpler to understand and implement.

• People still mostly trust their own and their families efforts in terms of recycling and at the same time people's trust for businesses and the government doing the right thing has deteriorated. 

• Recycling ‘on-the-go’ is a key challenge for consumers, with notable decline in the perceived ease of recycling for many convenience products. Fortunately the COVID-19 related increase in disposable products is not causing many people to deprioritise recycling efforts.

• The pressure to deliver fully recycled plastic packaging is however significant, with well over half of all consumers expecting 100% of all plastic packaging to be made of recycled materials by 2030. 

Read the full report here