WRAP defends mixed plastics collections

Mixed plastics collections should not be blamed for contamination problems in bales of bottles and are an important part of making plastic packaging acceptable, according to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

Paul Davidson, WRAP's plastics sector specialist, told letsrecycle.com's packaging conference last week that 19% of local authorities were collecting more plastics than just bottles in 2009.

Such schemes have come under criticism by reprocessors and manufacturers for adversely affecting the quality of bottle bales (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, Mr Davidson said that contamination of bottle bales with mixed plastics and other material streams was a much wider problem, indicating that dedicated mixed plastics collections were not to blame.

He said: “Bottle bale quality deterioration is serious but it's not caused by mixed plastics collection schemes – there are not enough of them to have the size of problem we are seeing. It's from contaminated bottle collection schemes.

“It might sound like quite a subtle point but it's really important.”

Mr Davidson added that offering mixed plastics collections to councils gave contractors a tendering advantage and that it helped to counteract the bad press surrounding the material.

He said: “Comprehensive mixed plastics recycling is a fundamental part of establishing plastics as a sustainable packaging choice for UK consumers.”

Cost

Discussing the issue of cost, Mr Davidson acknowledged that it was very expensive to add mixed plastics to kerbside sort collection systems – especially in the current economic climate.

However, he said that adding it to commingled collections was far cheaper and that there were other factors which made it attractive – indicating that the recycling of mixed plastics may take off in the same way as had happened with bottles.

He said: “Adding mixed plastics to kerbside sort is a very expensive thing to do. When added to commingled schemes it costs far less. I think landfill tax will tend to keep the pressure on. It may not be as rapid as it's been but I think we will still see that trend.”

Film

During his talk, Mr Davidson also discussed progress made by retailers in offering front-of-store recycling for plastic bags.

He said this was important because it was hard to collect film at the kerbside due to contamination issues and there was growing demand among retailers for food grade polypropylene (PP).

“Plastics film collection and recycling is more practical than first thought via front-of-store recycling,” he said.

“Retailers are really stepping up to extend bag collection schemes which will provide the feedstock to start building recycling plants…we are quite excited by that.”