The comments were made by Recoup chief executive Stuart Foster at the organisation’s annual conference and AGM in Peterborough yesterday (September 24).
Mr Foster also revealed the preliminary results of the organisation’s latest household plastic packaging collection survey, which showed a total of 492,000 tonnes of waste plastic packaging was collected for recycling during 2014. This represents an increase of around 30,000 tonnes from the 464,000 tonnes collected in 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story).
In particular, the number of councils collecting plastic pots, tubs and trays (PTT) for recycling is continuing to creep up – with 285 local authorities offering some form of collection for the material in 2014 – compared to around 271 during the previous year.
Should another 20 local authorities begin collecting the material – taking the total to 305 of the UK’s 406 authorities – the On Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) scheme would have to consider changing the advice for PTT from ‘check local recycling’ to ‘widely recycled’, the conference heard.
Plastic bottles, the most commonly collected plastic packaging material is collected by 400 of the 406 collection authorities in the UK.
Plastics reprocessors are divided over whether increasing collections of PTT – for which end markets are yet to reach maturity – is a positive move for the UK, with some calling for greater focus on increasing capture rates and quality of more established materials such as bottles.
PTT
Among the UK processors using the material is Regain Polymers, which supplies recycled polypropylene for the production of plastic paint cans for use by AkzoNobel in the Dulux paint range.
Recoup has recognised the importance of the need to capture greater volumes of PTT in order to meet packaging recycling targets – which the Conference heard could shortly be up for review.
Phil Conran, chair of the government’s Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP), explained that work is ongoing to review the effectiveness of the legislation that requires producers of packaging to fund the collection of the material at the end of its life, including the target for the capture of the material, which is due to hit around 57% of that placed onto the market by 2017.
Communications
Elsewhere the Conference also received an update on the ‘Pledge 4 Plastics’ communications campaign, which is being run by Recoup alongside the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
Campaign materials have so far been used by 111 local authorities, the Conference heard, in the year since it was first launched.
WRAP also announced yesterday that its Recycle Now campaign will also be focussing on increasing the capture of recyclable plastics through to the end of November 2015 with a range of communication materials including digital resources, posters and leaflets specifically for plastic recycling available via the campaign’s website.
According to WRAP, the Recycle Now and Pledge 4 Plastics campaigns will produce ‘aligned communications activity and a consistent set of messages’ around plastics collections.
Marcus Gover, director at WRAP, said: “Using the communication materials is a real opportunity to deliver some targeted communications campaigns around a material stream we know causes confusion with consumers. We want people to recycle plastic as it’s a fantastic useable resource. We’re asking partners to get involved by downloading the new materials and use them in their own plastic recycling campaigns. The materials have been created to provide clarification, dispel myths and help consumers get a better understanding of what they should be recycling.”
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