plastics technology is constantly evolving and traditional ‘hard to recycle’ packaging such as multi layer packs are a prime focus on improvement - there are many advances coming through the prototype stages which make recycling very easy such as this:
however these new methods will still rely on the adoption of recycling plants to move to this new technology which is always the sticking point. It is not feasible for brand owners such as Huel to go into a large scale investment to do their own recycling so while they could adopt these new pack technologies there would still need to be the reliance on the recycling industry following suit.
Long story short – you as a consumer are better served lobbying your local government and political parties to prioritise investment in new recycling technology. Large MNC brand owners are creating their own recycling programs too but the sad reality is too many people demonise plastics without doing much about it.
‘Zero carbon’ yacht trips for outraged ranting in the UN would be a prime example – especially when the yacht is loaded with single use drinking water bottles (rather than fitting a water reclamation system) and then everyone flying home instead of sailing back.
PET is easily recyclable under current technology but in the UK the percentage of it that is returned for recycling is minute and barely breaks into a double figure percentage. This means that brand owners who want to use food grade PETr from recycled materials face chronic shortages.