About us

Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic are teaming up to run The Big Plastic Count.

In 2022 nearly 250,000 people from schools, households and communities across the country made The Big Plastic Count the biggest investigation into UK household plastic waste. It showed that almost 100 billion pieces of plastic are thrown away in the UK each year, with hardly any of it recycled.

With your help, we’ll gather more, game-changing evidence that will push the government to take bold action on plastic.

Back in 2017, Everyday Plastic founder, Daniel Webb, collected every piece of his plastic waste for a year. With a scientific researcher, he developed a unique methodology to calculate his personal plastic footprint.

The Big Plastic Count offers every one of us the same chance to discover what happens to our plastic waste once we throw it away.

Photos: © Ollie Harrop/Everyday Plastic 2018.

Plastic waste in rubbish bags

Join The Big Plastic Count and you’ll play a vital role in pressing for change. Right now, world leaders are negotiating The Global Plastics Treaty – an international legal agreement to stop the harmful impacts of plastic. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to protect our planet from plastic pollution.

We’re producing too much plastic and there aren’t enough reusable options that work for everyone. The UK produces more plastic packaging per person than almost any other country in the world and our recycling systems can’t cope.

By joining us to count your plastic waste for one week, you can help gather even more evidence about how much plastic the UK uses and what really happens to it so we can push the government and companies to face up to the fact that we can’t recycle our way out of this mess.

Will you join us?

Founders

Partners & Supporters

University of Portsmouthlogo Surfers Against Sewage Kids against Plastic logo Tearfund logo
Common Seas logo SOS-UK logo MofEE logo DofE logo
Green Schools Project logo Let's Go Zero logo British Science Week YTPE logo
Friends of the Earth Scotland logo Transform our World logo UKWIN logo Eco Schools logo Reloop logo

JOIN THE COUNT

The Big Plastic Count week took place 11-17 March - but it's not too late too take part. You can still sign-up until 25 March, and submit your data by 31 March.

You can help us gather the vital evidence we need to convince UK ministers, supermarkets and big brands to lead the way at global talks that could finally phase out plastic pollution for good.

Sign up now

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