Plastics

* FOR our plastics prices indicators, please click on the Plastics Prices Archive or see below for 2013 prices*

Plastics recycling in the UK is carried out on two levels - from the home, and from business and industry.

On the household front, efforts currently focus on the collection of bottles, ranging from milk bottles (HDPE) to soft drinks bottles (PET). According to plastics recycling body Recoup, 306,000 tonnes of plastic was collected for recycling by councils in 2011.

Increasingly, local authorities are responding to the pleas of residents to allow them to recycle mixed plastics, such as yoghurt pots, but the practice is still relatively rare due to the volatility of end markets and lack of UK processing capacity for mixed plastic material.

In the industrial and commercial sector, off-cuts are recycled from plastics factories and the manufacturing sector while plastic film used to wrap goods is usually collected, baled and sent for reprocessing.

Another area which produces a large amount of plastic is the agricultural sector, which generates film. Non-packaging plastic film in this sector accounts for around 85,000 tonnes of the plastic disposed of each year and there has been talk of Defra (The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) introducing a producer responsibility scheme to encourage its collection and recovery.

Plastics recycling in the UK is strongly dependent on the export market, with a large amount of demand for material coming from the Far East. WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) claims that dependence on the export market has grown ninefold in the past seven years, which leaves the domestic market susceptible to outsider influence and potential crashes like the one seen at the end of 2008.

The lack of strong internal infrastructure has started to lead to substantial investment in developing domestic plastic recycling capacity by companies such as J&A Young of Leicester, Closed Loop Recycling London, and ECO Plastics (formerly AWS Ecoplastics) in Newcastle.

In particular, plants such as Closed Loop London have developed facilities to recycle plastic food packaging back into food-grade material – which is attracting growing interest from the commercial sector.

Mixed plastics have become an area of increased interest recently, with WRAP commissioning more research into collection and processing.

However, one of the issues facing the sector is that, because waste plastics usually have a high calorific value, there is considerable debate over whether or not the best route for some mixed plastics is incineration for energy recovery rather than recycling.

A Quality Protocol for non-packaging plastic was launched by WRAP and the Environment Agency in December 2007 in a bid to quantify when non-packaging plastic ceases to be waste.

Note: From June 2012 letsrecycle.com has improved its market price indicator service for domestic plastic film and has introduced separate categories for printed plastic film.

    • Plastic film 2013

    Plastic film 2013 £ per tonne

    Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
    UK PE Printed 260 - 280 245 - 280 230 - 260 230 - 250
    UK PP Printed 135 - 165 130 - 160 100 - 135 100 - 135
    UK Clear - Natural 350 - 390 355 - 395 340 - 380 350 - 380
    Export 80:20 35 - 55 35 - 55 20 - 40 10 - 30
    Export 90:10 95 - 110 95 - 110 85 - 100 70 - 85
    Export 95:5 165 - 180 165 - 180 155 - 170 135 - 155
    Export 98:2 250 - 265 250 - 265 240 - 255 235 - 250
    Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
    UK PE Printed
    UK PP Printed
    UK Clear - Natural
    Export 80:20
    Export 90:10
    Export 95:5
    Export 98:2

    Plastic film 2013 £ per tonne

    Prices chart

    Plastic bottles 2013

    Plastic bottle prices 2013 £ per tonne

    Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
    Clear and light blue PET 230 - 270 230 - 270 210 - 250 210 - 250
    Coloured PET 25 - 55 25 - 55 25 - 55 25 - 55
    HDPE natural 285 - 325 295 - 330 280 - 315 280 - 310
    HDPE mixed colour 150 - 175 150 - 175 135 - 160 125 - 150
    Mixed 15 - 115 20 - 120 20 - 100 20 - 90
    Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
    Clear and light blue PET
    Coloured PET
    HDPE natural
    HDPE mixed colour
    Mixed

    Plastic bottle prices 2013 £ per tonne

    Prices chart

    Plastic bottle prices 2013 £ per tonne

    Prices chart

    Other plastics prices 2012

    Other Plastics prices 2012 £ per tonne

    Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
    Wheeled bins
    PVC windows
    Pots and trays -20 - 0
    Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
    Wheeled bins
    PVC windows
    Pots and trays -20 - 0 -20 - 0 -20 - 0 -20 - 0 -20 - 0 -20 - 0

    Other Plastics prices 2012 £ per tonne

    Prices chart