The proportion of plastic bottles collected in the UK for recycling has risen by 7% year-on-year to 46%, according to the recently published 2010 UK household plastics packaging collection survey. The research was commissioned by plastics recycling organisation Recoup (Peterborough / UK; www.recoup.org) and sponsored by Nampak Plastics (Newport Pagnell / UK; www.eu.nampak.com) and independent consultant PPS Recovery Systems (Peterborough / UK; www.pps-ltd.com). Over 263,000 t of plastic bottles were collected from “bring” and kerbside schemes for recycling in 2009, with the total reaching 303,000 t including non-bottle packaging. In a preliminary announcement in October 2010, Nampak Plastics said that almost three-quarters of HDPE milk bottles consumed and collected in the UK in 2009 were recycled – see Plasteurope.com of 13.10.2010. Kerbside schemes accounted for 215,500 t of plastic bottles collected, the research says, representing an increase of 46,600 t over 2008 and reflecting the increased number of local authorities introducing a kerbside collection service for the first time, the expansion of schemes and overall performance improvement of existing services.

The total number of local authorities offering a plastic bottle collection through kerbside in the UK is now 360, covering over 23m households. The “bring” collection tonnage for plastic bottles, where consumers take their own waste to collection centres, was 47,000 t in 2009. The majority of local authorities (82%) indicated that their schemes were running smoothly, suggesting that the infrastructure and support required to launch and sustainably operate a plastic bottle collection scheme is now available to most UK local authorities. According to the survey, over 54% of plastic bottles are still not recycled and Recoup says there is genuine concern that without a focussed effort the plastic bottle reprocessing infrastructure in the UK cannot be sustainably supported by UK bottle collections.

Looking forward, the survey responses suggest that kerbside schemes could potentially recover 271,000 t of plastic bottles in 2012, representing an additional 56,000 t. If a yearly 10% increase in household kerbside coverage and performance is additionally applied, the estimated collection could reach over 350,000 t annually by 2012. Marcel Arsand, Recoup project manager, said: “It is really exciting to be able to follow the plastic packaging collection scheme progress over the years, especially when significant improvements are reported. Once again we have dedicated a lot of time and resources to gather the most accurate data possible, which allowed us to confidently report on key aspects related to plastic packaging collection.”

e-Service:
UK Household Plastics Packaging Collection Survey as a PDF document