With 60% of local authorities now offering kerbside collection, recycling of plastic bottles has increased significantly in the UK in the past six years, from just 3% of the household waste stream in 2001 to 25% in 2007. This means that 3,300m bottles will be recycled this year, equivalent to 132 t of polymer. These are the key findings from research funded by Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP, London / UK; www.wrap.org.uk) and carried out by the recycling charity Recoup (Peterborough / UK; www.recoup.org).

"To have reached a collection rate of 25% is significant progress," says Paul Davidson, WRAP's plastics technology manager. "However, three out of every four plastic bottles are still not being collected for recycling, so there remains a need to focus on good practice and remove scheme inefficiencies to optimise current systems," he said.

The UK Plastic Bottle Recycling Survey 2007 found that those households offering kerbside collection recycled, on average, 7.5 kg of bottles annually, an increase of 2 kg on 2006. The highest performing collection schemes reported in excess of 20 kg per household annually. Based on local authority declarations, kerbside collection will be available to 56% of UK households during 2008. The report forecasts that UK bottle recycling will reach around 150,000 t by 2009, equivalent to a level of 28%.