FlexCollect is to expand to 35,000 Newcastle homes

The council launched the initial trial in June 2023 with 5,036 properties in the east side of the city.

Around two in five households in the area are said to use the service and to date so far, the council said it has collected over 51,000 bags of flexible plastic packaging for recycling.

The current levels of participation by residents are in line with the other eight councils in the pilot, which the council said shows that demand for the service is high, “even in a densely populated city” such as Newcastle.

‘Cleaner, greener, environment’

Councillor Marion Williams, cabinet member for a sustainable city, Newcastle city council said: “We committed to hitting our net zero targets as one of the three core priorities for the city.

“We are pleased with the results of the initial trial and hope this expansion will encourage more residents to recycle their flexible plastic packaging.

“It is key that we support these initiatives to play our part in creating a cleaner, greener environment for the future.”

Newcastle city council said that nationally, plastic bags and wrapping makes up around 25% of all UK consumer packaging, but less than 10% is currently recycled.

The £3.6m FlexCollect project, funded by the Flexible Plastic Fund and UK government, is being used to understand how plastic bags and wrapping can be reliably collected in a way that has a minimal impact on residents and collection services.

The results of the trial will also be used to provide feedback to help with the future development of the recycling infrastructure needed to process this material.