WRAP consults on ways to raise plastics recycling levels

In its consultation paper on the plastics section of its proposed business plan, WRAP says that an estimated 2.2 million tonnes per annum (tpa) of the municipal waste stream is plastics wastes. Of this, around 1.1 million tpa, or 50%, is plastic packaging which includes 435,000 of plastic bottles, the balance of 635,000 tpa being other plastic packaging, primarily plastic film.

Treatment routes for plastics (source: Recoup)

Among local authorities, WRAP says that:

• Recycling of municipal plastic waste is growing, but remains a very small fraction of the total generated – around 1% of municipal plastic waste
• 11,300 tonnes of plastic bottles were collected and recycled in 1999
• 4 in 10 local authorities have some form of plastic bottle collection facilities
• 2.75 million households (around 10%) have kerbside collection of plastic bottles
• Of the 2.2 million tonnes of plastics in the municipal waste stream, around 2 million tonnes is landfilled
• A further estimated 150,000 tonnes tonnes is incinerated at EfW plants, expected to increase to 245,000 by 2001
• A small fraction (11,000 tonnes) is recycled

WRAP identifies several barriers to increased recycling. On the supply side there are a limited number of kerbside collection schemes to provide feedstock to reprocessors. It also notes that there are limitations to mixed plastics processing with cost and technical barriers limiting effective separation of different polymer types at materials recovery facilities.

But, the document does not mention the export of plastics waste, apart from including figures in a table, at a time when more and more material is being sent to China for hand sorting. And, it also does not comment on the long held support of the British Plastics Federation for burning plastics in energy from waste plants. Only this week the BPF has taken a party of UK local authority members and officials and waste management company representatives to Denmark to see how plastics are burnt there.