Over 340,000 tonnes of Waste Plastic Bottles Collected in 2016 in UK : RECOUP Publishes Results of Plastics Recycling Survey

A survey carried out by RECycling of Used Plastics Ltd (RECOUP), a not-for-profit working to promote plastics recycling, has found that over half a million tonnes of plastics were collected in the UK in 2016.

Household Plastics Collection Survey, launched at the RECOUP plastics recycling conference, has highlighted the need to invest in kerbside recycling collections infrastructure and communications.

The organisation said that the survey can report 512,475 tonnes of plastics were collected for recycling in 2016. This consisted of over 340,000 tonnes of plastic bottles and nearly 170,000 tonnes of plastic pots, tubs and trays.

Just five Local Authorities in the UK now do not provide a collection service that includes plastic bottles as part of their kerbside collection service and 76% (298) of Local Authorities in the UK collects plastic pots, tubs and trays.

Progress?

RECOUP said that although the collection data represents great progress over the last 20 years, it doesn’t tell the whole story. The increase in collection of plastics bottles from UK household represents an increase of less than 1% from the previous year.

New collection schemes are also slowing down, with only seven new kerbside schemes in 2016 reporting that they introduced the collection of plastic pots, tubs and trays.

The organisation added that the opportunities for increased collections of plastic packaging are clear. In the UK the RECOUP Survey reports a collection rate in 2016 for all types of plastic bottles of 58%, with a 32% rate for plastic pots, tubs and trays.

Financial Constraints

Local Authority and waste management providers should be applauded for their efforts, but Local Authority budgets continue to be squeezed.

The RECOUP Survey found that from nearly 160 responses, 51% of Local Authorities in the UK received budget cuts for providing waste and recycling collections or delivery of communications to householders about waste and recycling.

This represents a significant change to the results when the same question was asked the previous year – when just 13% reported budget cuts.

In terms of legislation, the role of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and ambitions for the future the next 2-3 years provides a window of opportunity for the UK.

Consistency in materials collected for recycling, how they are presented for recycling and a long-term investment programme in consumer communications need to be central to building household recycling in the future. If the UK is serious about increasing recycling rates it needs a strong strategy and delivery plan that is also financially backed.

Communications

There is an increased demand to engage and communicate with householders by running plastics recycling communication campaigns. However, this is one of the first areas to suffer from budget restrictions.

With contamination having major detrimental effects to both treat and sell recovered materials, Local Authorities report they are focussing communications equally on two important fronts - increasing collection rates and reducing contamination.

According to RECOUP the UK moves towards Brexit, one legislative option is that the UK generates a producer fund which would be responsible for the delivery of national communications to raise awareness of recycling and increase participation, and would support Local Authority campaigns at a local level.

The national plastics recycling communications initiative Pledge 4 Plastics continues to provide resources to deliver plastics recycling communications. These resources were funded by RECOUP members and are available for FREE through the Pledge 4 Plastics Resource Library.

There are over 100 Local Authorities which would like to work in partnership to deliver a match funded Pledge 4 Plastics communications campaign, but at present there remains no central or dedicated budget to develop new resources or deliver plastics recycling communications.

The Great Debate

With the ongoing debate about how to increase the collection rate for plastic bottles and a potential role for Deposit Return Schemes (DRS), comparing the UK’s plastic bottle collection rate with other countries is not comparing ‘like-for-like’ data, and has been likened to comparing ‘apples and oranges’.

Other EU countries report they have a 90%+ household drinks bottle or PET plastic bottle collection rate by using a deposit return (DRS) scheme. However, RECOUP said that there are different and unique challenges for each country depending on the level of kerbside collection infrastructure in place and regional geographical and demographical characteristics of where a DRS scheme is used.

Where high collection rates exist for plastic drinks bottles there is generally a lower overall collection rate for plastic packaging, with far lower or no recycling rates for non-drinks bottles and plastic pots, tubs and trays.

Valpak recently published data that reports a 74% collection rate for drinks bottles consumed in the household stream in the UK, and this provides evidence that any future direction of improving plastics packaging collection rates needs careful cost-benefit analysis.

“Making kerbside systems as good as they can be will inevitably lead to higher household plastic collection levels. Consumer communication particularly needs financial backing,” said RECOUP Technical Manager, Steve Morgan. “The question is, over the next 2-3 years, is there the funding and real desire to carry this forward?”

The survey can be downloaded free of charge HERE

Read More

Roadmap to Better Recycling for Black Plastics Launched

Led by plastic recycling charity RECOUP, in the UK across-industry group has agreed a range of new actions and commitments to tackle the on-going difficulties in recycling black plastic packaging.

EU & US Plastic Recycling Trade Groups Join Forces to Harmonise Testing Protocols

Three major plastics recycling organisations have joined forces in a partnership designed to coordinate efforts on testing protocols.

EU Commission Unnecessarily Delaying Approval of Plastic Recycling Processes

While it is dragging its feet the European Commission is actually in a position to authorise evaluated processes for food grade plastics recycling, according to trade association, European Plastic Converters (EuPC).