Pringles and Lucozade branded 'villains' of the recycling world over packaging

Pringles: The popular crisp packaging is on the Recycling Association's 'top offenders' list
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​Pringles tubes and Lucozade Sport bottles are “villians” to the recycling world, according to an environmental expert.

Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, said producers and manufacturers need to move away from the “idiotic” Pringles tube model and pay more attention to packaging.

He said the distinctive packaging is an example of not getting the design right when considering the environment, adding: “what idiot designed this in terms of recyclability?"

Despite saying the UK’s packaging industry has made “some extraordinary progress” in recent years, he told a conference: "We've got a cardboard tube, a metal bottom, a plastic lid.

"The Pringles factor - right at the design stage, we've got to get that right. What we're putting in our recycling bins has got to be recyclable.

"We've got to get away from the Pringles factor."

In a list of products that pose the biggest challenges for reuse, the environmental trade body also slammed the design of the popular Lucozade Sport bottles.

Mr Ellin said: “This bottle is so confusing to computer scanners that it has to be picked by hand off the recycling conveyor. Then it often just gets chucked away."

A Pringles spokesman said: "We take our responsibilities to the planet we all share seriously and are continuously working to improve our environmental performance.

"All parts of a Pringles can act as a barrier to protect the chips from environmental contamination and to keep them fresh.

"The freshness of our chips means a longer shelf life, which minimises food waste."

A Lucozade Ribena Suntory spokesman said: “We take our responsibility to the environment seriously and on Lucozade Sport in the last year we reduced the weight of the bottle by 3g, which equates to an annual saving of 540 tonnes of plastic.

"As with the rest of our drinks produced at our Coleford factory, the Lucozade Sport bottles are blown on-site to limit our carbon footprint and they are all recyclable.

”We recognise our responsibility to limit our impact on the environment and welcome any technological breakthroughs that support this ambition.”

It comes as the Prince of Wales prepares to join record-breaking yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur in launching a multimillion-pound competition to encourage the reduction of plastics in the world's oceans.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Charles's International Sustainability Unit (ISU) will launch the New Plastics Economy Innovation Prize in central London on Thursday.

It was set up to challenge groups and individuals to find new ways of designing packaging to help keep it out of the oceans.

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