Organised by Everyday Plastic to get some accurate data on just how much plastic we throw away. I’ve saved and counted our plastic waste for the week 9-15 March 2026 and previously for weeks 11-17 March 2024 and 16-22 May 2022.
Campaign web site: The Big Plastic Count
Results
| 22 | 24 | 26 | Food and Drink |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Small bottles |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Large bottles |
| 1 | 2 | 2 | Hard plastic caps and lids |
| 14 | 3 | 11 | Peelable film lids |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | Fruit and veg trays, pots and their hard lids |
| 8 | 4 | 3 | Fruit, veg and salad bags, wrappers, nets |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Black pots, tubs, trays |
| 17 | 16 | 14 | Pots, tubs, trays |
| 28 | 53 | 29 | Snack bags, packets, wrappers |
| 0 | 2 | 0 | Other hard food and drink packaging |
| 30 | 46 | 32 | Other soft food and drink packaging |
| Cleaning and Toiletries | |||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | Small bottles |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Large bottles |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Pots, tubs, tubes |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | Squeezy tubes |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | Other hard cleaning and toiletries packaging |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | Other soft cleaning and toiletries packaging |
| Everything Else | |||
| 2 | 3 | 0 | Other hard plastic packaging |
| 10 | 4 | 0 | Other soft packaging |
The pictures show that the total amount of plastic packaging hasn’t changed much over the last four years. In 2026 the main difference is that there are only three of us, previously there were four. It doesn’t look like our choice of food has changed much. What has changed is that much of the soft plastic is now printed with the “Recycle with bags at large supermarkets” logo. So this is where the soft plastic now goes, rather than into the black rubbish sack. The food waste is typical of any given week, the cleaning and toiletries section is going to vary more week to week because many of the products last longer than a week before they are used up.
We have a single wheelie bin for dry mixed recyclables, as well as a green bin for food and garden waste. Only the plastic bottles and hard plastic trays and tubs are collected for potential recycling. Given that the single recycling bin also includes glass, paper, cartons and cans, presumably the plastic is difficult to separate out as a clean and uncontaminated waste stream for recycling. The remainder of the plastic will probably go to the Waterbeach landfill as part of the black bag waste. An incinerator was muted a few years ago but the public voted against it. Not included in the survey is packaging made from paper and plastic composites. Tetra-pak cartons can go in the recycling bin, but probably not the rest.
2026 plastic packaging for 2 adults and 1 child.
2024 plastic packaging
2022 result for our family of four, two adults and two children.
