PLASTICS PACKAGING RECYCLING
Further improvement in UK plastic bottle recycling rate / Higher level still needed / Inadequate infrastructure for non-bottle rigid packaging
There was an estimated plastic bottle recycling rate of 48.5% in the UK in 2010, representing a total of 281,097 t of polymer and some 6,184m bottles, according to the recently published “UK Household Plastics Packaging Collection Survey 2010". This was 400m bottles, or 6.5%, ahead of the previous year. However, the recycling rate must improve significantly if it is to meet the demands of UK bottle reprocessors, says Stuart Foster, chief executive officer of report author Recoup (Woodston, Peterborough / UK; www.recoup.org), adding that a recycling rate of 70% needs to be achieved by 2017, which would provide 480,000 t of reprocessed polymer. At the same time, bottle quality must be maintained, with the contamination level for non-bottles remaining below the Recoup recommended level of 5%.
An estimated 580,000 t of plastic bottles entered the UK household waste and recycling systems in 2010, together with an inferred 500,000-600,000 t of non-bottle, rigid plastic packaging. There was an estimated recycling rate of 12-15% for these non-bottle rigids and this needs to improve, but, as Foster made clear, the UK infrastructure to sort and reprocess this type of waste is clearly inadequate, which is causing inefficiency within sorting and reprocessing facilities. It is also encouraging export to markets where sorting costs are lower. Simply landfilling these materials is not an option, Foster asserted, adding that energy from waste should also be reserved only for those plastics which cannot be mechanically recycled in a commercially viable way.
The report, which was sponsored by Nampak Plastics Europe (Newport Pagnell / UK; www.eu.nampak.com) and Wellman Recycling (Mullagh / Ireland; www.wellman-recycling.com), predicts that in 2011, the UK will have collected an estimated 425,000 t of plastics packaging for recycling, with a level of 468,000 t achievable in 2012. The UK was ranked 15 of 29 EU countries for plastics packaging recycling in 2010, up from 17th in 2009. No EU country achieved higher than a 36% mechanical plastic recycling rates.
e-Service:
2011 UK Household Plastic Packaging Collection Survey as a PDF document
An estimated 580,000 t of plastic bottles entered the UK household waste and recycling systems in 2010, together with an inferred 500,000-600,000 t of non-bottle, rigid plastic packaging. There was an estimated recycling rate of 12-15% for these non-bottle rigids and this needs to improve, but, as Foster made clear, the UK infrastructure to sort and reprocess this type of waste is clearly inadequate, which is causing inefficiency within sorting and reprocessing facilities. It is also encouraging export to markets where sorting costs are lower. Simply landfilling these materials is not an option, Foster asserted, adding that energy from waste should also be reserved only for those plastics which cannot be mechanically recycled in a commercially viable way.
The report, which was sponsored by Nampak Plastics Europe (Newport Pagnell / UK; www.eu.nampak.com) and Wellman Recycling (Mullagh / Ireland; www.wellman-recycling.com), predicts that in 2011, the UK will have collected an estimated 425,000 t of plastics packaging for recycling, with a level of 468,000 t achievable in 2012. The UK was ranked 15 of 29 EU countries for plastics packaging recycling in 2010, up from 17th in 2009. No EU country achieved higher than a 36% mechanical plastic recycling rates.
e-Service:
2011 UK Household Plastic Packaging Collection Survey as a PDF document
26.03.2012 Plasteurope.com [221910-0]
Published on 26.03.2012
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