The Plastics 2020 consortium has launched “PIRAP” (Plastics Industry Recycling Action Plan) to drive through the initiatives required to meet the UK’s target of 57% of plastic packaging to be recycled by 2017. The consortium said that just weeks after finalising the document, 21 supporters had come forward with many more expected to follow.

The members of the consortium – the British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk), PlasticsEurope (Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticseurope.org), and the UK’s Packaging & Films Association (PAFA, Nottingham; www.pafa.org.uk) – announced their intention to develop PIRAP last September – see Plasteurope.com of 11.09.2014.

Philip Law, BPF’s director general, said: “It’s a great achievement to secure an agreed document in an area which has become a political football. Plastics packaging recycling levels are a function of so many factors and the support of a very large number of organisations has to be harnessed to make significant progress.

PIRAP has also received backing from the UK’s resource management minister, Rory Stewart. He commented: “We are recycling more than ever before and have doubled the recycling of plastic packaging over the last 12 years. This reflects a lot of hard work by industry across the supply chain but there is still more to be done. That’s why it is so encouraging to see industry working together to develop this plan which will help us to protect the environment and grow the economy.”

The UK’s 57% recycling target represents a major challenge to the industry. In its strategy plan, PIRAP said approximately another 100,000 t/y of plastics packaging needed to be identified, collected and recycled if the goal was to be achieved.

Latest analysis showed that the rate of increase in the UK’s collection of waste plastics packaging has effectively stalled while demand from Asia for waste was also levelling off as focus switches towards internally generated volumes.

A study last year by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk) and Valpak (Stratford-upon-Avon / UK; www.valpak.co.uk) indicated that, based on current progress, it could take until beyond 2020 to meet the UK’s target. In view of this, the UK government is currently consulting on whether the present goal should be revised down to meet the original policy intent of 42% and to extend the timeline to achieve this.

Plastics 2020 will now engage directly with all stakeholders to establish a number of joint actions to ensure the year-on-year growth in recycled plastics that will be required to meet the UK’s target. It said there were several areas where improvements could be made to develop end-markets for plastics recyclate, enhance collection rates, adopt best-in-class collection methods, optimise sorting infrastructure, and include end-of-life considerations in packaging design.

PIRAP said it was imperative that any regulations that would hinder its achievement should be swiftly removed or replaced with constructive alternatives. It said the government needed to explore reform of the Packaging Waste Recovery Note (PRN) and Packaging Export Recovery Note (PERN) systems to ensure a level playing field for domestic reprocessors and exporters.

In addition, it cited the need to incentivise the use of recycled plastic. Here, the industry is recommending a discount against its obligation within the "producer responsibility" regulatory framework, or tax breaks for recycled content.

PIRAP warned that without the full engagement of all stakeholders in the supply chain, including the UK government and its agencies, the 2017 target would prove extremely challenging to meet.