Our project

The research is funded by the Lancaster University Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Impact Accelerator Account (EP/X525583/1).

The ‘In the Loop’ project is a project focuses on accelerating the dialogue between Booths supermarket, their customers, and Lancaster City Council (LCC) on several interconnected issues, including recycling, plastic packaging circularity, and food packaging innovation. The project aligns with the UK’s circular economy, net zero and zero waste agendas.

Building on the 3.5-year UKRI Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (NEV/VO10611/1) project, we conducted two pilot projects—one with Booths and the other with Lancaster City Council (LCC), both of whom are core partners working closely with our team. The pilots revealed important insights: Booths’ customers expressed a lack of trust in the fate of recycled packaging and the use of recycled content in food packaging, while LCC faced challenges in engaging households to recycle and recapture materials for reuse in production.

In the Loop aims to:

• Foster greater transparency among key stakeholder groups (e.g. Booths, customers, LCC and residents), serving as a foundational step towards building trust as the foundation for co-creating initiatives aimed at improving recycling food plastic packaging.
• Highlight and promote the role of customer recycling efforts at home and the use of recycled food plastic packaging within the broader context of plastic packaging circularity and sustainable packaging innovation.
• Clarify and explain the journey of recycled food plastic packaging, from kerbside recycling collection to its reappearance on Booths’ shelves, making the process more accessible and understandable.

In the Loop’s objectives are to:

1. Facilitate open dialogue among different stakeholder groups (e.g. Booths, customers, LCC, and residents) about recycled food plastic packaging and recycling practices.
2. Reframe decision-making around plastic packaging by emphasising its value as a resource and highlighting the role of ‘waste’ within the broader context of the circular system and climate emergency.
3. Showcase the positive impact of responsible recycling efforts (e.g. washing recyclables and avoiding contamination) on the processes of plastic packaging circularity and the environment.
4. Emphasise residents’ role in the larger system of plastic packaging circularity (including fate of food plastic packaging), distributing responsibility across the entire system rather than focusing on one group.
5. Demonstrate how recycled food plastic packaging is part of a broader strategy for sustainable packaging and innovation, including engaging with re-use and re-fill system, and reducing the plastic usage in Booths’ own-brand food products.

Outputs and deliverables

The outcomes from the project will ultimately impact a reduction in plastic packaging waste and encourage better recycling and recapture of plastics.

A key deliverable is the co-creation of a communication roadmap to enhance decision-making practice across the circular supply chain. This communication roadmap includes Booths (as both a producer of own-brand products and a retailer), Booths’ consumers (from purchase to disposal), and Lancaster City Council (responsible for collection, recapture, and recycling).