The report, which was compiled jointly by Valpak and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), was commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) following concerns that the baseline data used to measure the UK’s progress to EU packaging targets is incorrect.
The study, called ‘Plastic Flow 2014’, was published this week (December 16) and claims that over 2,260,000 tonnes of new plastic packaging were placed onto the market in 2013. This, the report claims, is around 330,000 tonnes less than the 2,515,809 million tonnes of plastic packaging that Defra had forecast for the period.
Consequently, the report states, this would suggest that the UK’s overall recycling rate for plastic packaging, which was reported at around 27.4% during 2013, is likely to have actually been closer to 32% throughout the year. The report also suggests that if current trends continue, the UK could achieve a recycling rate of 38% by 2017, and 43% by 2020.
Light-weighting
Activity by producers of lightweight products is thought to be one of the factors behind the fall in tonnage put on the market in comparison to the projected amount.
The report explains: “The plastics packaging industry has believed for some time that packaging producer activity to light-weight plastic packaging has negated any potential growth in consumption and the results of this work would seem to support this assumption.“
However, the report warns that despite the improved performance resulting from the adjusted figure, there is still work to be done to meet the 2017 target to recycle 47% of waste plastic packaging.
It adds: “If the new POM (put on market) figure is adopted the UK will need an additional 349k tonnes of plastic packaging recycling between 2013 and 2017 to deliver the 2017 business target.
“Assuming that the UK continues to increase recycling at the same rate as the 1998-2013 average and that the new POM figure is adopted, the UK will still fall short of meeting compliance in 2017. Based on these assumptions the UK will require an additional 206k tonnes in 2017 to meet the current business target.”
Defra
The findings of the report are likely add weight to calls for Defra to review the targets for plastic packaging recycling, and the Department has confirmed today (December 19) that it will look carefully at the report before considering any possible changes to targets.
A Defra spokesperson said: “This report shows the amount of plastic packaging being recycled is increasing. This is down to a lot of hard work from industry and a desire from householders and businesses to recycle more.
“We will need to carefully consider the findings of this report before making any decisions on plastic packaging targets.”
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