Wrap has published a new technical guide that aims to help local authorities increase plastic bottle recycling rates today 30 january, called kerbside collection of plastic bottles guide. In the guide, the organisation notes that most uk material and plastic recovery facilities were designed for input material that is close to 40 pet, 40 hdpe and 20 other. However, it said that feedstock is changing to include a greater proportion of nonbottle rigid plastic packaging. According to wrap, this is substantially altering input proportions for example, reducing concentrations of pet and hdpe, which is having a knockon effect on sorting and reprocessing efficiencies. Wrap also said that &ldquosignificant feedstock problems&rdquo are caused for the reprocessors &ldquoas increasing amounts of mixed plastic packaging dilute the presence of pet and hdpe bottles&rdquo.
This is then, reflected back to local authorities as a cost, through a reduction in price they receive for their plastic bottles. Wrap said that reprocessors face a number of issues when nonbottle rigid plastic packaging gets into the plastic bottle stream. These problems include the following sorting lines run at a slower speed the net value of sorted material is lower due to increased amounts of lower grades and the capacity of sorting processes is reduced with regard to final rpet and rhdpe production.
Wrap said it reiterated messages from uk reprocessors and said that the collection of mixed plastic packaging may be contributing to the export of plastic bottles that could otherwise be sorted and reprocessed in the uk. In a series of key messages to local authorities, wrap asserts that councils should focus on plastic bottleonly services. &lsquowrap has taken the bull by the horns&rsquo speaking to packaging news, eco plastics managing director jonathan short said &ldquoi fully agree with this guide. We were heavily involved this consultation. It is so good that they have listened to what our concerns were. &ldquothe bottom line is stopping the increase of mixed plastics in the postconsumer stream and developing a collection of plastic bottles.&rdquo short also said that councils were carrying out inconsistent collections and mixed messages were relayed to the householder on what they can and cannot recycle. He said plastics such as black plastic trays were clogging up his system and is detrimental to the pet process.
He also said that it was encouraging that wrap had &ldquotaken the bull by the horns and addressed the critical issue of plastic bottle collections&rdquo. Short explained &ldquoas a reprocessor, we would like to echo the issues expressed in the report and call on local authorities to consider the consequences of plastic bottleonly services drifting to mixed collections in the context of the uk&rsquos sorting capacity.&rdquo short also said that black plastic trays had to be landfilled because there was no commercial value to them.
He said the uk had a situation where the &ldquocart was going before the horse&rdquo. He said materials are collected but the infrastructure is not there to reprocess them. &lsquoa number of challenges&rsquo closed loop recycling managing director chris dow told pn &ldquowe were very pleased to see further growth in bottle collections and in the light of the government&rsquos recent consultation on recovery and recycling targets it looks like we have both a lot to look forward to and a number of challenges. &ldquodefra&rsquos preferred option of a mandatory target of 57 by 2017 will see unprecedented collection volumes of plastics in the coming years and therefore the systems we adopt for collection and sorting are crucial to our national success.
Wrap have rightly provided some crucial advice as to what to look for when local authorities let their collection and sorting contracts. &ldquofundamental to the success of this sector is the need to provide a robust producer responsibility system and wrap are right to point out in their report that the current structure is not a level playing field when an exporter of plastic scrap is significantly subsidised by the current system and lack of enforcement of the trans frontier shipment rules. Surely it is time for a move to split the value of the pern and the prn to reflect true market conditions&rdquo plastic bottle recycling elsewhere,
linda crichton, head of collections at wrap, says the growth in plastic bottle recycling has been remarkable over the past ten years. &ldquoback in 2000, only around 12,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were recycled in the uk &ndash it&rsquos now nearly 20 times that amount,&rdquo she says. &ldquowe&rsquore also seeing rapid growth in domestic infrastructure to reprocess plastic bottles, some of which are even producing recycled food grade materials. Around half of the plastic bottles collected for recycling are now reprocessed in the uk.&rdquo she adds that maximising the capture of plastic bottles at the kerbside could be a way for local authorities to reach towards the targets to recycle 50 of household waste in england and 60 in scotland by 2020.
