A study into the data on the amount of plastic packaging placed onto the market in 2013 was carried out jointly by Valpak and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). The work was commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in February this year (see letsrecycle.com story).
The project was undertaken following concerns raised by the plastics packaging industry, which had questioned the ‘baseline information’ used to measure the UK’s progress towards EU packaging recycling targets.
A full report into the findings of the Plastics Market Flow project is due to be published in November, but industry representatives were presented with headline data from the study at a meeting of WRAP’s Plastics Markets Group yesterday (September 2).
Forecasts
According to the initial findings of the investigation the flow of plastics in 2013 was 2,260,000 tonnes, around 330,000 tonnes less than the 2,515,809 million tonnes of plastic packaging that Defra estimated had been placed on to the market.
The 2,515,809 million tonne figure, which was put forward in Defra’s recovery and recycling target consultation for 2013-2017, is based on estimates of the amount of packaging placed on the market in 2006, and adjusted to reflect market trends over the amount of packaging being produced.
The plastics sector has argued strongly that based on the obligations calculated by Defra, the packaging recycling targets would be very difficult to hit, with estimates that the volume of plastic packaging collected for recycling may need to rise by around 500,000 tonnes to do so.
Progress
The results of the study would suggest that the progress in recycling plastic packaging, which had a target of 37% for 2013, is actually greater than projected by Defra. The target is due to rise 5% per year up to 2017, when it will reach 57%, it currently stands at 42%.
Commenting on the initial findings of the study, Bob Lisney, chair of the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP), said: “I am very pleased that all parties have worked together so well on this project and congratulate the project team on the thoroughness of their work. The good news is that this indicates that the UK is actually doing better on plastics recycling than was previously thought.”
A study has already been carried out to assess the accuracy of data used to calculate the amount of glass packaging placed onto the market, upon which the recycling target for glass is based, which led to amendments to the glass target. However the situation in the glass market differed from that in plastics, as factors including fraud in the sector had led to an overestimation in the amount of glass obligated for recycling.
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