Exporters of waste have been contacted by the Environment Agency in light of recent restrictions imposed by several countries on the types of material that they will accept.
In a bulletin sent out by the Agencys Producer Responsibility Regulatory Service for Packaging on Friday (October 19), exporters were reminded to observe bans that have put in place across a number of countries in recent weeks.
As well as a ban on the import of plastic waste into Malaysia, reported by letsrecycle.com earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story), the lettersays that China has banned the import of waste plastic bottles and is considering bringing in legislation prohibiting the import of unwashed post consumer plastics.
The bulletin alsolists bans on the import of some types of waste into the United Arab Emirates, as well as restrictions on plastics and some metals from being imported into Vietnam.
The Agency is urging exporters to use its Waste Export Controls Tool which highlights the regulatory controls that apply to the export of waste for recovery to specific countries from England and Wales, to keep track of export restrictions.
Plastics
A high proportion of the UKs waste plastic is currently sent for reprocessing overseas, a practise that critics say is hampering investment in waste infrastructure in the UK.
Although exporting waste is seen to have been a key driver in increasing recycling rates in the UK over the last decade, many within the sector believe that the continued export of significant amounts of recyclables overseas sees the UK economy missing out on revenue and job creation.
The plastics sectors vulnerability to the export market was highlighted earlier this year, with exporters reporting in May that material prices had dropped by as much as 20 a tonne as a result of escalating container prices, due to declining demand for material in the Far East (see letsrecycle.com story).
Quality
And, according to one UK-based plastics exporter, the UK will need to increase the quality of the recycled material it produces, if it is going to remain competitive in the shrinking export market.
He said: At present the UK exports around 60% of the plastic it generates and doesnt have anywhere near enough capacity to process all of that material, a huge investment would be needed for that to happen.
The UK is competing with every other country to sell its plastics to the countries that do a lot of manufacturing, but quality is not good enough at the moment, and is getting worse. When demand is as weak as it is now, they will buy better quality material from other countries because they have to do less work with it.
You now have the situation where China is recycling a lot of its own plastic and there is less demand for imports.
Infrastructure
Groups including the Packaging and Films Association (PAFA) have called for the government to increase spending on plastic recycling infrastructure to reduce the UKs reliance on overseas processors and to prevent the cost of recycling escalating for packaging producers.
In response to the news of increased export restrictions in the Far East, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has told the UKs waste sector to expand its own reprocessing capacity, in order to ensure that future difficulties in sending material overseas do not put packaging recycling targets at risk (see letsrecycle.com story).
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