Plastics bottle collection rates see highest rise in three years but much still to do
The amount of plastic bottles collected for recycling from UK households has risen by the biggest annual total in three years.
The latest findings are published by RECOUP as part of its annual UK Household Plastics Collections Survey.
It suggests during 2017 there was steady progress in the amount of not only bottles collected (up 2.5 per cent), but also plastic pots, tubs and trays (up 3.5 per cent).
The combined total for both streams was 527,010tonnes collected – representing an overall 2.8 per cent increase versus 2016.
These 527,000 tonnes make up just over 50 per cent of the total plastics packaging recycled in the UK, reported to be 1,044,363 tonnes in 2017.
Of these 1,044,363 tonnes, 66 per cent was exported and 34 per cent was recycled in the UK.
However, with 2,260,000 tonnes placed on the market, the remaining 1,215,637 tonnes was not collected for recycling, and therefore went to landfill or energy recovery end destinations.
RECOUP says although there are obvious opportunities to increase the quantities collected for recycling, the quality of material, as well as consumer confusion, are increasingly becoming concerns.
“Although plastic bottles have seen the biggest increase in collections for three years, with volatile export markets, the drive for quality is needed throughout the plastics recycling value chain,” explained Steve Morgan, RECOUP’s Technical Manager and Report Author.
“The opportunities are there. There are still nearly 600,000 tonnes of rigid plastics packaging that could be collected for recycling, but the consumer is often unaware how they can make a difference by their individual actions, both by what plastics packaging they can recycle in their local area and how to present it for recycling.”
“Just not getting it”
According to the report, Local Authorities report the reasons for consumer confusion include conflicting national media messages, language barriers, and people just “not getting it”.
A total of 47 per cent of Local Authorities in the UK also reported they received budget cuts for providing waste and recycling collections and communications, and say they are “unable to put the resources in place” to deliver communications and behaviour change programmes with their residents.
However, RECOUP says there is good news, with Local Authorities showing “an appetite to do more”. It reports 49 per cent are planning a communication about plastics recycling, with 91 per cent targeting reducing contamination in their communications.
Importantly, nearly 100 says they are interested in a match funded partnership to deliver plastics recycling communications to residents.
New RECOUP initiative - Pledge 2 Recycle Plastics
In order to continue its own communications and behaviour change initiatives, RECOUP announced within the report a relaunch of its own national recycling campaign.
Formerly ‘Pledge 4 Plastics’, the initiative is now known as ‘Pledge 2 Recycle Plastics’.
RECOUP says it will continue to provide resources and be a catalyst in supporting consumer communications in plastics recycling across the UK, including tackling the detail of how to present plastics packaging for recycling and identifying the key items of confusion that inadvertently lead to contamination.
Anne Hitch, Communications Manager at RECOUP, said: “We have gained so much knowledge about just what is turning off recyclers and how we need to re-engage to answer their questions and misconceptions about plastics.
“It has been rewarding to engage at grass roots in a way to inspire and challenge consumers to recycle and prevent plastics resources ending up in landfill or the natural environment.”
Fuelled by the Blue Planet Effect
Commenting on the findings of the report, Stuart Foster, CEO of RECOUP, says that since the ‘Blue Planet effect’ turned attention on the industry, the whole recycling value chain in the spotlight to do more, either voluntarily or through legislative interventions.
“It cannot be right to allow plastics to leak into the environment, neither is it acceptable to lose the opportunity to utilise plastic as a technically and cost effective material for so many applications,” he said.
Foster believes that collections of recycling and maximising the value and use of the collected material is the “essential foundation” to maximise circular use of the materials we use and dispose of.
He acknowledges targets will provide the legislative driver and, although the current plastic packaging targets will increase gradually until 2020, he expects more ambitious recycling targets are expected to be implemented in the upcoming European Circular Economy Package, which he says the UK should adopt.
“If we set this against information which suggests that the additional recycling target tonnage over the past five years has been based on export reprocessing, also that any growth has been in commercial and industrial plastic packaging as household collections, then we get some indication of the huge task that lies ahead,” he said.
Foster says the UK does have core capacity for plastic reprocessing, but like many others believes that this infrastructure would need to be drastically increased if the country is to reprocess the additional tonnage from increasing target requirements and remove the reliance away from volatile export markets.
“It will also be needed to service the ever-increasing commitments on use of recycled content and ambitious commitments by brand leaders to circular manufacturing,” he adds.
“Creating the right balance of legislative drivers and positive long-term business conditions should allow for a viable and resilient system to meet future increased plastic recycling targets and maximise best use of plastic resources. Extended Producer Responsibility is seen by many as one of the key drivers to achieving these aims.”
The details in the report will be discussed further at RECOUP’s annual recycling conference, taking place in Peterborough on 27th September. For tickets, click here.
To download the full report as a PDF, click here.