A research study which advocates the landfilling of PET plastic ahead of recycling or incineration is “unwise” and “dangerous for sustainability”, plastics recycling trade body EuPR has claimed.
Environmental services firm SRI Consulting published a study earlier this month (August 9) which claimed that the disposal of PET plastic bottles into landfill would be a preferable outlet for the material in countries with limited recycling infrastructure.
However, EuPR – which represents 80% of plastics processors across Europe – has attacked the report and claimed that, if its conclusions were followed, the European market would lose “valuable material in landfills”.
“This publication is unwise, dangerous for sustainability and goes against European legislation,” Casper van den Dungen, chairman of the EuPR PET working group and vice-chair of the trade body, said last week (August 25).
“The use model is intrinsically wrong as in reality landfill should be avoided as a starting principle,” he added. “[These] kind of studies are hazardous because they are bringing a wrong message to the population: your efforts to recycle are useless. It goes against all the efforts achieved during the past decades.”
Research
SRI, which operates a number of offices across the world, published the study off the back of its work in the chemicals and plastics production fields, as well as collating information from its ‘Carbon Footprint Yearbook'.
Mike Arné, assistant director at SRI's carbon footprinting initiative, said: “The key to this is not in raising collection rates, but in improving yields, especially in sorting and to a lesser extent in reprocessing. For countries without recycling infrastructure, the best choice may well be to landfill bottles.”
The study claimed that existing kerbside collections only account for less than 50% of new PET being placed on the market and there should be a drive to lower the dependence on virgin material to produce PET products.
Furthermore, it claimed that shipping material to China for reprocessing was not “footprint critical” and said it does not “significantly affect” the carbon footprint of PET. However, incineration of PET creates the highest footprint, especially in facilities which do not produce heat or power.
The issue of PET recycling was highlighted at the end of last month when it was revealed that the price being paid in the UK for the recovered material had reached unprecedented levels of £230 to £260 per tonnes (see letsrecycle.com story). This figure has since increased to as much as £250 to £280 per tonnes as of August 2010.
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