The Evolution of Recycling and Reducing Waste

Welcome to the first Looped In of 2025. We’re kicking off the year by taking a look at an incredible ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ journey spanning nearly three decades, with Lucy Danger, the CEO of EMERGE 3Rs.?

We also provide a run down on the latest iteration of the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) base fees, and round up a host of recycling, sustainability and circularity stories making the headlines.??

It’s great to be back for another year and we hope you enjoy the latest instalment of Looped In. As always, we love to hear your comments and do share any suggestions for topics you’d like us to cover in 2025.

Making a Material Difference – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

The EMERGE 3Rs collective has been tackling waste and supporting resourcefulness across Greater Manchester for almost three decades. From commercial waste recycling, through to the upcycling of waste timber and, latterly, the redistribution of surplus food, the registered charity has a vision of a world where people cherish and value natural resources. Looped In caught up with CEO Lucy Danger to find out more.???

Looped In: Please tell us a bit about EMERGE 3Rs.

Lucy: “Our journey started in 1996 when a group of us got together to protest about the building of a waste incineration plant in East Manchester. We weren’t keen on the idea of waste being burnt and after successfully stopping the incinerator plans, it left us thinking about finding more sustainable alternatives for handling waste. At this time, the concept and availability of recycling was nothing like it is today and we became early pioneers of collecting household waste for recycling.?

“A group of volunteers clubbed together and established a kerbside recycling service in parts of East Manchester and went on to secure a recycling contract with Manchester City Council for all their office paper waste. We formally registered EMERGE in 1998 and by the end of 1990s, we were recycling household waste for around 62,000 homes.??

“Things changed just before the turn of the millennium. Awareness of recycling was growing and attracting the commercial interests of large waste management companies. We lost our Council contract and ended up transferring around 20 staff via TUPE to another contractor. It was far from ideal but inspired where we are today. It encouraged us to diversify and expand, building services around our core values of reduce, reuse, recycle.

“EMERGE 3Rs is a registered charity, which runs our surplus food redistribution operation, FareShare Greater Manchester and Volunteering and Employability Programmes, including Give & Gain, offering work experience and training. We work very closely with our sister social enterprise EMERGE Recycling, which operates Touch Wood. We all share a vision of creating a society that’s more resourceful, environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive and economically responsible.”?

Looped In: What do you think has changed most in terms of approaches towards ‘reduce, reuse and recycling’ in the past few decades?

Lucy: “I think the biggest shift we’ve seen since the 1990s is the awareness surrounding recycling and the availability of recycling services. It’s grown from people separating and sorting waste at home, to actively wanting to do more of the same in workplaces. Businesses are supporting this by making it easy for employees to separate waste, and this is now the main focus for EMERGE Recycling – we collect and recycle commercial waste and we specialise in confidential data destruction (paper and IT).?

“We’re also seeing a growing enthusiasm to be more resourceful, with people generally wanting to create less waste and to make the most out of what’s in front of them. This is the back bone for Touch Wood, which collects unwanted timber and reuses reclaimed wood by repurposing it to make a whole host of different products. Upcycling seems to be a growing trend and the transition to a circular economy could well inspire it to become even more popular.?

“Although we’ve seen lots of progress over the years and positive change in terms of attitudes and behaviours, there’s still plenty to do. We spend a lot of time talking to people about recycling and there’s sometimes a cynicism about how effective UK recycling is. Some people seem to be wary about just how much waste is actually recycled. The positivity and concern surrounding recycling can also fuel ‘wishcycling’. If there’s uncertainty about how to dispose of materials, it can seem a better choice to put packaging in a recycle bin, rather than putting it in a rubbish bin. It’s an act of hope that’s rooted in good intentions but can cause problems for the effectiveness of recycling processes.”

Looped In: How can recycling problems be solved to improve recycling rates?

Lucy: “There’s currently a government focus on ‘Simpler Recycling’ and the general premise of this addresses some of what I believe are the biggest challenges facing recycling. Efforts are being made to simplify and standardise the separation of waste. This should mean that people, whether at home or at work, know which materials go in which recycle bin. Backing this up with engaging campaigns that help to educate the public about the importance of waste separation and sorting, and how this affects the overall success of recycling could help to improve recycling volumes.?

“Simplification and standardisation during the manufacturing of packaging could also benefit the sorting of waste and improve recycling rates. Since we first started collecting waste almost 30 years ago, there’s been lots of innovation in plastic packaging materials. There are now many different options, each offering different performance properties, from bio-based to compostable packaging through to lightweight materials that can deliver sustainable performance throughout supply chains. However, the wide availability of different materials can make waste separation, sorting and recycling more complex. Perhaps there’s an industry conversation to be had about adopting a mass approach to using fewer different materials to support more efficient and effective recycling?”

Looped In: There are many different approaches towards improving recycling rates, such as financial stimulus and taxes, public education campaigns and investing in recycling?infrastructure. What do you believe should be the priority focus for stimulating change to improve recycling and reduce waste?

Lucy: “A blended approach, which includes elements of all these different strategies and tactics, can help to inspire changes. Taxes, for example, probably aren’t very popular, but can create a framework that stimulates changes in processes and practices. Public education campaigns are also important, especially as interest and concern about sustainability grows, and new generations seek knowledge and inspiration.

“Investment in UK recycling is also required. There’s growing demand for recycled content and people increasingly want to reduce waste and recycle more. Investment in recycling facilities and services doesn’t seem to have kept pace with this.?

“The most important thing for all these approaches, in my view, is for them to be done properly. This can seem obvious but isn’t always the case. Full consideration needs to be given to the purpose and motivation of different actions to ensure they resonate with people. For example, if businesses are going to be taxed to encourage the use of recycled plastic packaging, show them the results of their tax contributions. How is new tax revenue supporting recycling? Is it being invested in recycling infrastructure?”

Looped In: Volunteering plays an important role in supporting EMERGE, especially in Touch Wood and FareShare Greater Manchester. What is it that motivates volunteers to support ‘reduce, reuse and recycling’?

Lucy: “Our experiences show that people hate waste and increasingly want to do something about this. Whether it’s food waste or material waste, we’re finding that more and more people want to take action to stop throwing away perfectly good and usable resources. Volunteers are prepared to give up their time and contribute in any way they can, whether that’s driving vehicles to redistribute surplus food, or spending time in our warehouses picking and allocating food. We’re always looking for more volunteers as demand for our services grows and we are happy to welcome new people to join us.”

Looped In: And finally, is there anything on the horizon for EMERGE, where Looped In readers can get involved??

Lucy: “FareShare Greater Manchester has just launched a new podcast that shares food stories about what we do and why. We’d love people to listen and to let us know their thoughts. Click to have a listen!

“We’re also working hard to expand our services to further enhance materials’ conservation, local employment and community engagement. To support this, we’re looking for social investors for EMERGE Recycling and Touch Wood by offering community shares until the end of March this year. The community share scheme will be able to pay up to 5% interest on members’ shares for the financial year 2026/27 and creates opportunities to contribute towards sustainability and social responsibility in Manchester. We’d love to hear from anyone who wants to get involved.”

Looped In: A big thanks to Lucy for taking the time to speak with Looped In. To find out more about EMERGE and becoming a social investor, email: [email protected] or click here.?

Third round of pEPR base fees

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has published its third iteration of base fees for the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) scheme in 2025 to 2026, as it moves another step closer to calculating final fees for the first year.?

Base fees published on 20th December 2024 follow a first round of fees published in August last year and a second iteration released in September 2024. Current base fees now include:

Some of the current base fees show a significant decrease in the cost per tonne, compared to average rates across ‘lower’, ‘higher’ and ‘intermediate’ brackets published for each material during the first iteration. The highest decrease is for fibre-based composites, which is now ￡75 per tonne less on average, while paper or board has dropped by an average of ￡50 per tonne and aluminium has seen an average reduction of ￡30. The base fee for plastic is now around ￡8 lower, while the rate for wood has climbed by almost ￡47 per tonne, with the rate for steel increasing by ￡10 per tonne.?

The most recent base fees are based on a modelling scenario, where initial funding allocations sent to local authorities at the end of 2024 totalled ￡1.5 billion. This is significantly lower than the original upper scenario of ￡1.8 billion.?

Final fees for the first year of the pEPR will be released after 1st April 2025, which is the reporting deadline for packaging data from 1st July to 31st December 2024. The final version of the base fees is expected to be available from July 2025.

All Packaged Up, a snapshot of news and views

A round-up of news stories and articles that have caught the attention of the Looped In team over the past few weeks.?

Ikea parent company targets €1bn investment in recycling

Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, which also owns Ikea, has announced plans to invest €1billion in companies that are increasing recycling infrastructure. As reported by Circular, the organisation wants to invest in financially and environmentally resilient companies to support the transition to a circular economy. In 2017, Ingka Group established Circular Investments to invest in companies with a focus on plastics, mattresses, textiles, wood and food waste. They estimate that they’ve recycled 2.7 million tonnes of materials since 2017, helping avoid 9.4 million tonnes of CO2e.?

New organisation for packaging waste

The 21st January 2025 saw the launch of PackUK – the scheme administrator that will manage the packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) programme. An announcement from Defra, reported by Packaging News, highlights that the pEPR, alongside other initiatives including Simpler Recycling and the Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers will stimulate an estimated ￡10 billion investment in UK recycling services over the next 10 years.?

Plastics and a competitive Europe?

A recent event at the European Parliament focused on the transitioning to a circular plastics sector being critical to Europe’s circularity agenda. An article in The Parliament reported how policymakers, industry leaders and European Commission officials gathered to explore ways to safeguard the plastics and recycling industries, while fostering innovation to reduce emissions and waste. Discussions at the event highlighted the importance of consistent and efficient regulations that give businesses the confidence to invest in sustainable practices, as well as frameworks to incentivise investment in recycling infrastructure.

Recycle with Michael?

The Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd has partnered with the National Forest to launch a new ‘Recycle with Michael’ scheme for schools and youth organisations. The scheme will encourage young people to take action against waste by donating clothing, handbags and shoes, with the option for proceeds raised by donations to be used to plant native trees in woodlands. Visit resource to read the full story.??

Let us know if any recent packaging, recycling, sustainability and circularity stories have caught your eye. Please share in the comments.