Vale Of Glamorgan Council Launch Trial ‘Soft Plastics’ Collection Service – RECOUP Comment: “Terminology Will Continue To Be A Key”

On Monday 21 April 2025, The Vale of Glamorgan Council launched a 9-month trial for the kerbside collection of ‘soft plastics’ from 16,000 homes in the area.

The council is offering the service through provision of 56 blue sacks for a year, so residents can separate their plastic bags and wrapping from the rest of their dry recyclables for collection.

This comes ahead of the kerbside collection of plastic bags and wrapping being made mandatory in the UK under pEPR by 31 March 2027 (and actioned in England through Simpler Recycling legislation). Another key reason is the Welsh council said that 9.8% of the contents of the material it collects is made up of bags and wrapping.

The items that will be collected are:

• Plastic bags, including carrier bags, pasta bags, pet food bags and parcel bags.
• Crisp and nut packets.
• Biscuit packets and chocolate or sweet wrappers.
• Films, such as ready meal lids.
• Plastic labels and wrapping from drinks bottles.

The council states the collected the material will be recycled into new products, such as bin bags and Bags for Life. The blue bags provided will also be recycled.

Steve Morgan, Head of Policy & Infrastructure says: “We welcome another council is starting to collect plastic bags and wrapping. This is essential to build material quantities, which in turn contributes to creating the investable conditions that are essential to develop the recycling infrastructure for these items. Looking at resident communications, terminology will continue to be key – terms like ‘plastic bags and wrapping, ‘soft plastics’ and ‘flexible plastics’ need to be condensed to one phrase industry and consumers can identify with.”.

To read more about the initiative, click here for the Lets Recycle article, and here for the dedicated page on the Vale of Glamorgan website, which includes a downloadable information leaflet.