UK Bakers Call for Action as EFRA Launches Circular Economy Inquiry: Reuse Must Be Protected, Not Just Promoted

The UK leading plant bakers (represented by Bakers Basco) have been operating a circular economy model since 2006. It’s not a pilot. It’s not aspirational. It’s real. Every day, our fleet of 3.5 million reusable bread baskets and 350k dollies travels through the UK’s supply chain, delivering bakery products to retailers and then returning to start the journey again. Simple in principle. Critical in practice.

And yet, every day, that circular system is broken, not because of poor design but because of misuse, theft or outright disregard. Our equipment ends up at festivals, in market stalls, even listed for sale online. Worse still, some is illegally melted down or dumped in landfill, destroying assets designed for hundreds of reuse cycles.

This is where I think the UK's circular economy debate needs a serious reset. Organisations like A Plastic Planet are right to call for “upstream” ambition as we absolutely need to reduce plastic production and embrace alternative materials. But equally, we must protect the circular infrastructure that already exists. Because without enforcement, the best-designed systems will fail.

When reusable assets are stolen or destroyed, it’s not just a cost to business it’s a climate issue. Every piece of stolen delivery equipment is another that must be re-manufactured. That means more plastic, more emissions and more waste. It flies in the face of the very principles we’re trying to uphold.

The EFRA Committee must not underestimate the operational barriers to circularity. Our team at Bakers Basco has invested heavily in GPS tracking, embedded ID markers and a nationwide investigations unit and we still lose thousands of assets each year. The missing link? A framework that treats theft and illegal disposal of reusable assets with the seriousness it deserves.

This is where government policy can make a tangible difference. We need:

• Tighter enforcement against waste crime and unauthorised recycling
• Stronger penalties for businesses that profit from stolen reusable assets
• Updated waste carrier regulations to protect materials still in circulation
• Clear End-of-Waste definitions to prevent ambiguity and abuse

The UK is rightly being urged to lead on upstream solutions at the Global Plastics Treaty talks. But we also need to lead on practical implementation at home. Let’s not wait until 2040 to protect the systems that are already working. And, there’s a reason the Environmental Services Association (ESA) included "preventing waste from leaving the loop" as one of its five pillars in its 2040 vision. Because if you can’t keep your assets in the system, you don’t have a circular economy, you have a leaky one.

At Bakers Basco, we’ve shown what’s possible when industry collaborates. Our founding members - Allied Bakeries, Hovis, Warburtons, Frank Roberts and Sons and Fine Lady Bakeries have built a shared logistics pool that reduces the need for single-use alternatives. But we can’t protect that system alone.

My message to policymakers is this: don’t just legislate for design. Legislate for protection. If we’re serious about circularity, we need to back reuse with regulation not just recycling with rhetoric.