WRAP boasts 55 founding members of UK Packaging Pact

Ahead of the official April 2026 launch of the UK Packaging Pact, nongovernmental organization (NGO) Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) recently announced the names of the 55 founding organizations that have signed up for the 10-year pact to bring sweeping changes across all packaging materials.

With support from PackUK and the U.K. government, WRAP says the UK Packaging Pact will transform how packaging is designed, used and recovered to reduce waste and emissions, better protect nature and put citizens’ needs at the heart of packaging decisions.

The new voluntary agreement is a successor to the UK Plastics Pact and widens the focus to all materials commonly used in packaging, and the range of sectors involved in the new program. Companies producing products from food and drink, beauty care, pet products and household goods can join and change packaging to optimize its use, expand reusability and fully integrate packaging into the circular economy.

“Collaboration works and it’s delivering real change,” WRAP CEO Catherine David says. “Unrecyclable black plastic is gone, recycling is rising and unnecessary packaging is disappearing. But the scale of the challenge demands more. Plastic pollution remains a global crisis, and with the failure to secure a global treaty, the need for bold, systemic action has never been greater.

“We must accelerate the step change to circular living, driving reuse, tackling plastic film and enabling the impact of upcoming recycling reforms. This is collective action at its most ambitious and essential, and WRAP is proud to lead the charge toward a truly circular future.”

Ahead of the new pact’s April launch, signees include companies such as ASDA, Aria, Haleon, Lidl, Ocado Retail, Tesco and Yeo Valley, organizations such as PackUK and GoUnpackaged and waste management companies Biffa, Suez Recycling Recovery UK Ltd. and Veolia.

“Government and businesses must ensure packaging is used time and time again,” says Mary Creagh, the U.K.’s circular economy minister. “Our new extended producer responsibility scheme will turbocharge this shift to more sustainable packaging. I pay tribute to the 55 world-leading companies who have signed up to the UK Packaging Pact and pledged to go further and faster in delivering greener packaging.”

PackUK CEO Jeremy Blake says the new pact represents a needed collaborative approach to drive “real, lasting change."

"No single organization can solve the packaging challenge alone," he says. "By pooling expertise and insights across industry and government, we can break down the barriers and accelerate the shift to truly circular packaging at scale.”

WRAP says that with its whole value chain approach, the UK Packaging Pact will bring together academics, SMEs, innovators, leading retailers, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands and recyclers for a whole-system approach to “revolutionize” packaging in the U.K. and influence global markets. WRAP claims it is in talks with many major brands, retailers and manufacturers across multiple sectors.

Goals of the UK Packaging Pact include:

• optimizing packaging;
• scaling reuse and refill;
• supporting circular economy infrastructure investment; and
• harmonizing data to improve traceability for more impactful decision making

The pact intends to fill the supermarket of 2035 with products in minimal, efficient packaging designed for reuse and remove single-use packaging from the everyday waste stream. The organization says it will usher in more widely used and easily recyclable packaging with reduced carbon and will continue to act to eliminate “problematic and unnecessary” packaging items following the success of the UK Plastics Pact, which began in 2018.

“As major reforms, including packaging extended producer responsibility, simpler recycling and deposit return schemes move into implementation, the UK Packaging Pact will assist businesses and serve as a testbed for implementation and a feedback mechanism for future regulation,” WRAP says.

Following a sustainable model

Since 2018, WRAP says the UK Plastics Pact has achieved marketwide transformation through voluntary action, adding that despite global disruption and policy delays, businesses acted ahead of regulation.

WRAP says the UK Packaging Pact will continue and broaden this momentum, addressing unfinished plastics targets while expanding collaboration across all packaging material streams. The organization says it will tackle “persistent challenges” from flexible plastics to scaling reuse and underinvestment in infrastructure by convening business, government and investors around shared solutions.

In the recently released UK Plastics Pact progress report, data claimed members:

• eliminated 99.9 percent of problematic plastics;
• removed 80 percent of polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make recycling easier and reduce processing costs;
• removed 726 million problematic items in advance of bans;
• phased out 36,000 tons of hard-to-recycle packaging
• developed 70 percent of plastic food packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable;
• increased their rate of plastic recycling to 53 percent; and
• tripled recycled content usage from 8.5 percent to 28 percent.

WRAP claims the UK Plastics Pact has become the blueprint for 13 global plastics pacts now operating across 19 countries in the Global North and South.