I collected my plastic waste for a year — here is what I learned

This year, I collected the plastic waste left over from my groceries.

The aim was to see how much I would be leaving behind — and whether there was hope for any of it to be recycled and live on in the so-called circular economy.

Around half of what I gathered had to go straight into the general waste bin, most likely to be burned.

The other half had a chance of being recycled — but the system is very far from perfect and has flaws which echo a worrying development in the global conversation about reducing plastic waste.