Tag-and trace specialist Polytag has called for businesses to “get serious” about using data to measure recycling.
The firm, which has installed plastic-detection units in seven materials recovery facilities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said reliance on “estimates and assumptions” about waste management outcomes had gone on “too long”.
Polytag published a white paper at an event this month, outlining “a practical, scalable blueprint for a circular economy”.
It said this was “rooted in barcode-level traceability and next-generation sorting infrastructure using technology that is already installed and delivering results today”.
The tag-and-trace exponent called for packaging producers and recyclers to co-invest in detection kit and share data to build an efficient national system.
Polytag chief executive Alice Rackley said it was “time to move from rhetoric to reality”.
“We’ve shown that item-level traceability is possible now,” she added. “With regulation tightening and the pressure to prove impact mounting, the sector faces a clear choice: keep guessing, or get serious about data, collaboration and real results.
“The technology is ready. The infrastructure is growing. What we need now is collective action to scale it together.”
