Speaking at the Community Recycling Network’s annual conference last Friday, John Simmons, chief executive of Recoup, said: “The real problem in the UK is collecting and sorting, we have no problem moving material. There are end markets for plastic bottles, but we simply can’t get enough material.”
He added that collections of plastic milk bottles in Bromley, Cornwall and Sevenoaks are proving to be successful and said: “It is feasible to just collect plastic milk bottles as it is not economically viable to sort, which is why a lot of plastic bottles are exported. Organisations who are just collecting milk bottles are breaking even. But, you do need a good promotional campaign to make it clear that you don’t want any other bottles.”
Recoup Services Ltd currently pays 165 -180 per tonne for HDPE and 60 per tonne for mixed plastic.
But, Mr Simmons said the situation was likely to improve especially as packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) prices will rise dramatically over the next few years. He added: “PRNs will increase so that they are more similar to mainland Europe and as the landfill tax rises recycling plastic will become a more cost effective alternative.”
Mr Simmons encouraged groups to recycle more plastic and said that simple measures such as squashing bottles can reduce collection costs by half. He added that kerbside was the most efficient way of collecting bottles and highlighted how tailoring a service so that some areas are collected from on a weekly basis, while others are collected from on a two-week or four-week basis can make them more cost effective.
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