WRAP offers guidance for plastic bottle collection
30 January 2012
A technical guide to the collection of plastic bottles has been issued by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to help local authorities launch plastic bottle recycling or to boost collection rates.
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- The WRAP plastic bottle collection guidance, sets out a number of recommendations for local authorities
A number of key findings have been set out within the document, which may impact the way councils implement plastics recycling schemes in future. In particular, local authorities are advised to ‘carefully consider’ allowing mixed plastics collections, while keeping in mind the available sorting capacity to deal with mixed plastic packaging and bottles.
Quality
The document also highlights “anecdotal evidence” gathered from recyclers of plastic bottles suggesting that material quality depends directly on the extent to which a scheme encourages households to sort plastic bottles into separate containers, and states that provision of sufficient recycling capacity has a direct effect on the quantity of plastic bottles collected.
Linda Crichton, head of collections at WRAP, said: “Back in 2000 only around 12,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were recycled in the UK – it is now nearly 20 times that amount. We’re 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.”
She believes that maximising the capture of plastic bottles at the kerbside could be a way for local authorities to reach recycling targets, which have been set at 50% of household waste in England and 60% in Scotland by 2020.
A section of the guidance document also sets out recommendations for the communication of plastic bottle recycling schemes, emphasizing the view held by some plastics reprocessors that authorities need to send out a clear message that all plastic bottles (regardless of polymer)can be recycled.
Highlighted in the report, is the view that collection crews can help to implement a positive communication strategy, as they are able to see areas where recycling is not being done correctly.
The report says: “An ideal opportunity for on-going communications is at the point of collection and this has been shown to have a marked impact on improving the quality of material placed out for collection. If collection crews identify contamination at the kerbside, and adopt a structured and consistent procedure for notifying the responsible households, it is often possible, over time, to significantly reduce contamination levels on any given round.”
Reprocessors
The report has been welcomed by sections of the plastic bottle recycling sector, Jonathan Short, managing director of Lincolnshire based plastics recycling firm ECO Plastics, said: “It is very encouraging that WRAP have taken the bull by the horns and addressed the critical issue of plastic bottle collections.
“As a reprocessor, we would like to echo the issues expressed in the report and call on local authorities to consider the consequences of plastic bottle-only services drifting to mixed collections in the context of the UK’s sorting capacity.
“We also believe that communicating the message to householders that all plastic bottles can be recycled, regardless of polymers, is of paramount importance.”
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