The strong demand for high quality recovered plastics represents a great opportunity for UK manufacturers to exploit. This is one of the conclusions drawn by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk) in its “Plastics Market Situation Report 2010”. The report found that demand for food-grade recovered polymers is outstripping supply in some cases and points out that there could be significant economic benefits from increased recycling of mixed plastics, with the recovered materials market possibly worth GBP 250-500m (EUR 305-610m).

One downside to the enthusiasm for more recycling is the UK sector’s dependence on exporting material to a small number of markets, with China identified as one of the key destinations. This, says WRAP, leaves it vulnerable to sudden changes in demand, adding that efforts should be made to increase the number of outlets. According to the report, some 950,000 t of plastic material was collected in the UK in 2009. Of this, an estimated 700,000 t was sent overseas to be reprocessed, almost 30% more than the 548,000 t exported in 2007.

The plastic bottle recycling rate in the UK currently stands at over 40% and attention is now being turned to developing an infrastructure to recycle mixed packaging plastics, of which less than 5% are currently recycled. WRAP recently launched a GBP 2m “Mixed Plastics Loan Fund” to provide capital support to potential investors in mixed plastics reprocessing in the UK. The first reprocessing facility is scheduled to be opened by the Greenstar WES Group (Redcar / UK; www.thewesgroup.co.uk) – see Plasteurope.com of 27.07.2010.

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