A refuse collector has provided the definitive answer on which bin you should use to throw away your empty crisp packets and chocolate wrappers. The UK gets through more than eight billion packets of crisps a year, according to Statista, which also projects we will be eating more than 11 billion a year by 2030. That is more than 30 million packets a day.
The UK is also one of the top five chocolate-consuming nations in the world, meaning we are also getting through a vast quantity of chocolate wrappers. Yet while the recycling of food packaging across the UK has progressed considerably in recent years, there remains no straightforward method to recycle crisp and chocolate wrappers.
Today’s crisp and chocolate packets and wrappers frequently contain a number of layers and are typically manufactured from polypropylene or polyethylene with an aluminium coating. You may more commonly hear this referred to as “soft plastics”. The means to recycle this type of material at scale remains far from widely available, despite most local authorities now offering the collection of hard plastics for recycling. Environmental charity WRAP says: “There is still change that needs to take place for widespread roll-out of recycling collections at kerbside for plastic bags and wrappings.”
Britain’s most recognised refuse collector, who goes by the name of The No1 Binman on TikTok where he dispenses advice to more than 170,000 followers, has now shed light on what to do with crisp and chocolate packets.
“They do not go in any of your recycling bins,” says The No1 Binman, whose real name is Ashley. “A crisp packet, yes it can be recycled but you need to take it [to a supermarket]. Most supermarkets take them. And I know that means going to the supermarket with empty crisp packets to put them in their bins but if you’re asking the question of where they get recycled – that is where.
“Otherwise, you can put them in your general waste bin and they will get collected there. But if you’re looking to recycle crisp packets, then it goes in the bins in the supermarket. It’s the same for chocolate wrappers, because it’s such a thin plastic and made from different materials.”
In 2023, the BBC revealed how crisp packets originating from the 1960s were discovered washed ashore on a Norfolk beach, serving as a stark reminder of just how long plastics endure. Among the finds were pre-decimalisation packets of Golden Wonder crisps, bearing a price of 5d, alongside 2d Spangles sweets.