Litter Aware Ltd addresses the ever-growing problem of litter, and the issues associated with it, utilising a combination of behavioural science and technology_._ Our unique approach to litter management (the 'LitterLotto' App) is incentivising people to dispose of litter in an appropriate manner, increasing material collected for recycling by offering prizes for the correct behaviour. The use of our 'LitterLotto' App directly reduces the negative impact of litter in the environment, improving well being associated with cleaner community spaces and supporting the circular economy. In its simplest form our mobile app 'LitterLotto' asks people to take a picture of litter as they dispose of it, in exchange for the chance to win a prize ("Bin it to Win it"). This feasibility project builds on our basic 'LitterLotto' platform to work specifically with local authorities to develop educational, and incentive based, App technology adaptations to encourage citizens to place used plastic packaging in the correct recycling bins **at home**. Residents don't always do the right thing due to lack of education or understanding, unclear messaging, and or lack of convenience. We aim to help and reward them do the right thing. The **@Home** functionality will directly benefit local authorities by reducing contamination and increasing materials available for revalorisation. In this feasibility study we will work in collaboration with Buckinghamshire Council to specifically design communications, messaging and rewards to ensure greater compliance between plastic packaging types to direct them to the correct waste stream. We aim to reduce 'wish cycling' and encourage the separation of bathroom plastics making it easier for citizens to understand which bin to use for which packaging. More correct behaviours will result in greater and cleaner volumes of plastic packaging material being sent to plastic recycling facilities. This has a direct market value to those producing recycling grades of plastics, leading to greater volumes of recyclate placed on the market, and thus supporting the circular economy and UK Plastic Packaging Tax legislation.

Compostable plastic packaging is increasingly prevalent in both the retail (physical and online) and catering sectors. Predominantly it comes in the form of food service-ware and bags (carrier and those for loose fresh produce), but increasingly it is used for flexible packaging for fresh produce, small format such as twist wraps, crisp bags and non-packaging applications like coffee pods. In these formats, compostability presents a new opportunity for increasing circularity: for transferring organic waste to composting, to enable the (organic) recycling of the food contaminated unrecyclable packaging or simply a solution for which no mechanical or other recycling route exists at scale today. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, this project will for the first time, quantify the _environmental and economic_ impacts of applying compostable plastic packaging in a trio of established UK supply system models: food service ware in established closed loop systems, retail bags (repurposed as organic waste bags) alongside other compostables in a municipal collection and flexible produce packaging in an online retailer's take back scheme. Behavioural insights will be gathered, and targeted consumer interventions developed, tested then deployed to increase the organic recycling of compostable plastic packaging whilst optimising the potential for compostable plastic packaging in aiding the recovery of organic waste where applicable. Working closely with the UK's leading in-vessel composting operator, the project will deliver the first full-scale use of a protocol designed to quantify packaging and other plastics arriving at organic waste facilities. Further to providing a robust methodology for accounting for compostables into organic recycling processes, it will also identify the most common non-compostable plastic formats which can then be targeted for recycling campaigns or redesign. Within the take-back loop the packaging will be composted in the retailer's decentralised facility. The compostable plastic packaging will be traced through the centralised (municipal) and decentralised composting processes with compost quality to PAS100 assessed. For products which do not have an established route to organic recycling such as coffee pods and small format wrappings, it is important to clarify their performance with both the consumer and the composter. Selected households will be provided with products which will then be traced through the municipal organic waste system back to the final compost. Further to extensive reporting, the project will deliver open access communication tools based on the learnings from this UK first project.

PragmatIC-Semiconductor has developed a unique technology platform for ultra-low-cost flexible electronics that could connect trillions of objects. The technology makes it viable to add RFID to low-value high-volume product packaging, to identify and trace objects throughout the whole lifecycle. **Our vision** for project TRACE (Technology-enabled Reusable Assets for a Circular Economy), is to apply ultra-low-cost RFID technology to trace reusable food-grade plastic packaging, encouraging reuse and enabling highly-scalable infrastructure. This large-scale solution has the potential to make packaging re-use the norm - consumers would no longer see the plastic as something to use once and destroy but as a valuable asset to re-use many times. TRACE addresses the challenges that currently prevent large-scale re-use: * Understanding consumer perception and how best to encourage adoption * Developing robust and optimised re-usable packaging designs * Enabling item-level traceability throughout the packaging lifecycle * Ensuring packaging remains safe and fit for purpose * Developing and demonstrating an end-to-end model for collection, sorting and washing infrastructure * Quantifying the overall environmental impact of moving from single-use to re-usable packaging The core technology innovation is the use of PragmatIC's ultra-low-cost RFID tags to enable a packaging re-use model. These tags provide machine-readable unique codes that allow automated identification and tracking of individual items throughout multiple re-use cycles. Rich data generated can support consumer adoption and infrastructure implementation for optimal environmental impact. For example; the movement of assets within the system, number of cycles, packaging provenance and legislative reporting. This project will tackle several significant technical challenges including: * Establish **minimum viable packaging** for food-grade re-use * **Embed tags** within the plastic to ensure durability throughout the packaging life-cycle * Demonstrate an **automated sorting**-**system** at TRL7\. The project will assess the **net** **environmental impact** of the entire solution and demonstrate the system in end-to-end **trials**, including assessment of client satisfaction throughout the supply-chain, analysis of consumer response, and assessment of costs and benefits. Although reusable packaging is our initial target, many components within the project can be extended to improve recovery and upcycling of single-use packaging. TRACE is led by PragmatIC-Semiconductor. Partners includes Ken Mills Engineering (leading manufacturer of MRF systems), RECOUP, Topolytics (experts in waste-mapping), and Sheffield University's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC-Cymru) and the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.

The project will build an open data standard and prototype portal spanning the complete plastic packaging life-cycle, from design to recycling/reuse. This project will reduce the impact that plastic packaging has on the environment by: \*Making it easier for citizens to know how to properly recycle their plastic packaging and make informed choices; \*Provide accurate, useful data to manufacturers and retailers at the point of product development so they can make better material and design decisions with end of life in mind; \*Help policy makers and regulators monitor progress towards recycling and Plastic Pact targets and inform future measures. To enable this the project will deliver five main outputs: 1. Prototype open data standard for plastic packaging; 2. Prototype portal to enable the reporting of the format and composition of plastic packaging being placed on the UK market; 3. Extension of the current open data standard on HWRCs to cover all geographical recycling points for plastic packaging; 4. Prototype portal to enable the reporting of all recycling points (local authority and commercial) for plastics packaging; 5. Clear plan for the next phase including determining the correct governance and financial sustainability models. Initially focused on plastic packaging, the design will be such that other materials can be added in the future. The initial focus on plastics will enable the targets of the Plastics Pact to be met, address public concern over the use of plastic materials in the environment, and support each part of the value chain to comply with their obligations under Extended Producer Responsibility and Plastics Packaging Tax. The project team, led by OPRL, brings together a highly skilled multi-disciplinary team of professionals with the necessary expertise and reach across the entire value chain. We will work with a wide range of stakeholders along the whole plastics packaging value chain to ensure our solution works for all. Key benefits include: \* Easy to use update mechanisms to ensure that the data is not a one-time snapshot of the circular economy, but a reliable, up to date description of its current state, updateable by key stakeholders; \* Management information and support for analysis providing a range of different queries on the data -- specifically queries showing progress against the Plastics Pact targets; \* Robust and secure data control measures to safeguard commercially sensitive data while ensuring as much data as possible is available for sharing among stakeholders or published to the open to increase collaboration and transparency.

This project is aimed at understanding more about the relationship between plastics recycling communications and behaviour change. What works, what does not, in a live lab situation supported by experts from across the plastics recycling value chain and delivered by plastics recycling member-based charity, RECOUP. It is accepted that citizens remain confused as to what can and cannot be recycled with regard to plastics packaging. This type of packaging is complex, different shapes, sizes, and colours all of which provide a challenge when it comes to giving clear and unambiguous guidelines. To give plastics packaging a second life and recycle into new products relies on the consumer doing their bit. If not placed for recycling then the packaging is lost, the resource is wasted, and it has the potential to pollute the environment. This will result in more virgin plastics will be used. In order to invest in UK infrastructure and drive end markets to a circular economy the supply of feedstock via kerbside systems needs to be high quality and quantity. It is crucial that we are able to drive the UK domestic market and the industry is no longer reliant on unstable export markets. In 2019 the UK exported (61%) 688,000 tonnes of plastic packaging for recycling. This project is aimed at engaging with citizens to reduce their confusion of plastics packaging and will use different communications methodologies and evaluate their effectiveness both in terms of tonnage rates, contamination and consumer perception, as well as taking account of socio economics and service provision. Citizens surveys will be conducted throughout the project to assess citizen understanding and evaluate communication effectiveness against investment, recycling rates and contamination levels. The project will be delivered by RECOUP, in Kent, across 13 Kent Councils (630,000 homes, 1.5m citizens) in partnership with Kent Resource Partnership, PPS Recovery Systems Ltd, Veolia, Viridor, Ecosurety, Plastics Europe and the British Plastics Federation, in a unique piece of industry led practical research and demonstration of value chain commitment to increasing plastics recycling capture and reduction of plastics pollution. The project is also supported by OPRL, Ocado, and WRAP. The resulting learnings from the project will be used to produce a blue print/best practice that will be produced that can be used in a national programme to educate on plastics recycling and drive plastics recycling recovery rates to 2025 PACT targets.