Towards a circular economy of plastic: exploring the vital role of everyday household disposal

This article draws on a three-year interdisciplinary project exploring UK household waste to illuminate the crucial yet underexplored role of the household in improving recycling rates. We highlight the complexities in the UK recycling system and how the burden of managing these falls to the consumer and the household. The article’s novelty lies both empirically in our micro-level focus on household plastic disposal but also conceptually in our contribution to international debates on circular economy (CE). Applying a sociological lens, we demonstrate how the complexity of plastic creates a mismatch between the idealism of CE policy and what can be delivered in practice. In turn, we demonstrate how the UK plastic supply chain and associated policies, are not only misaligned with everyday household disposal activities but also disregard their importance. We argue for two key areas of policy recommendation to improve the UK’s recycling rates and transition towards a more circular materials economy. These are 1) engagement with everyday household disposal practices to understand what happens with household waste at the micro level and how such understanding can innovate policy; and (2) using household disposal experiences to determine policy areas for rationalisation and standardisation across the plastic supply chain.