The UK is a nation of crisp and chocolate lovers, but what do you do with the soft plastic packaging when it comes to recycling?
12:15, 05 Jun 2026Updated 19:12, 05 Jun 2026
A binman has revealed where soft plastics need to go(Image: Amir Mukhtar via Getty Images)
A binman has offered the definitive guidance on which bin ought to be used for empty crisp packets and chocolate wrappers. The UK gets through more than eight billion packets of crisps each year, according to Statista, which also predicts we’ll be consuming more than 11 billion annually by 2030. That amounts to more than 30 million packets every day.
The UK also features among the top five chocolate-consuming nations worldwide, meaning we’re also getting through a vast number of chocolate wrappers. Nevertheless, while the recycling of food packaging in the UK has advanced significantly in recent years, there remains no straightforward way to recycle crisp and chocolate wrappers.
Contemporary crisp and chocolate packets and wrappers often contain multiple layers and are usually made from polypropylene or polyethylene with an aluminium coating.
You may hear this more frequently described as “soft plastics”. And the ability to recycle this kind of material on a large scale remains restricted, despite most local authorities now offering hard plastic collection for recycling, reports Wales Online.
Environmental charity WRAP states: “There is still change that needs to take place for widespread roll-out of recycling collections at kerbside for plastic bags and wrappings.”
The UK gets through more than eight billion packets of crisps a year — but do you know how to recycle them?(Image: Leon Neal/Getty)
Nevertheless, recycling policies do differ from authority to authority across the UK and some councils are able to collect soft plastics to recycle so you should always verify what your local authority does and does not recycle.
And Britain’s most famous refuse collector, who goes by The No1 Binman on TikTok where he shares advice with more than 170,000 followers, has now explained 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 reported how crisp packets dating back to the 1960s were found washed up on a Norfolk beach, providing a stark example of just how long plastics persist.
Amongst the discoveries were pre-decimalisation packets of Golden Wonder crisps, displaying a price of 5d, along with 2d Spangles sweets.