This year, I collected the plastic waste left behind from my groceries.
The aim was to see how much plastic I would be leaving behind — and whether there was hope for any of it to be recycled and live on in the so-called circular economy.
Around half of what I gathered had to go straight into the general waste bin, most likely to be burned.
The other half had a chance of being recycled — but the system is very far from perfect and has flaws which echo a worrying development in the global conversation about reducing plastic waste.
