The Big Plastic Count
Back in 2017, Everyday Plastic founder Daniel Webb decided to see how much plastic he threw away. For one year, he collected and counted every single piece of his plastic waste – and there were 4,490 items in total.
Working with a scientific researcher, Daniel came up with a way to work out his plastic profile. It revealed how much of his waste was recycled, burned, buried, or shipped abroad.
His experiment started a national conversation that inspired The Big Plastic Count. It gives everyone in the UK the chance to see what happens to their plastic waste once it leaves their home.
The Big Plastic Count was launched in 2022 by Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic. It is the UK’s biggest people-powered investigation into household plastic waste. Since then, almost half a million people have taken part. Over 11 million pieces of plastic have been counted.
The results have been impossible to ignore: most of our plastic isn’t recycled.
Help us and QMC raise funds
In 2025, The Big Plastic Count started a new chapter which will run until 2028, thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund.
We’re focused on deepening the story, and broadening who gets to tell it. The conversation around plastic needs to change. It needs to be clearer, more inclusive, and based on real-life experiences.
Over the next few years, we’ll bring new voices to the front of our work. We'll explore how plastic affects our climate and our communities. And we'll look at the whole plastic lifecycle – from how it's made to what happens when it's thrown away.
WHAT IS A FAIR FUTURE?
The Big Plastic Count imagines a fair future where everyone can take action on the plastics crisis, plus the wider problems it's linked to, like pollution and climate change. It’s a future that’s open to everyone, where people have the tools, confidence, and opportunity to make change.
A fair future means clean air, safe communities, and less plastic in our lives. It means that people left out of the conversation are leading it. It means making space for them to shape decisions, create solutions, and get the people in power to act.