The report, entitled Survey of Applications, Markets & Growth Opportunities for Recycled Plastics in the UK, said that an additional 14,500 tonnes of waste plastics could be recycled each year for the next 2-5 years. The report added that this tonnage, if there was sufficient material of the right quality available, could be manufactured into products like piping, industrial strapping and kerbside collection bins and boxes.
The report included a survey that identified 142 companies in the supply chain, processing 218,346 tonnes. It found that post-consumer plastic bottles made of PET and HDPE offers the greatest potential for long-term growth.
Paul Davidson, WRAP’s material sector manager for plastics, said: “One of the main opportunities for the recycling sector is the production of good quality PET recyclate for higher value applications.
“In the manufacture of industrial strapping, for example, UK produced recyclate could potentially replace all foreign imports and a proportion of virgin polymer by up to 80% of total production, representing an additional 8,000 tonnes a year.”
The report was written by Enviros Consulting and recommended that WRAP should: “To assist in the development of standards to ensure the quality of recyclate. This should encourage the replacement of virgin polymers with recyclate, particularly in pipe manufacture and in the automotive sector.”
Additionally, the report also recommended that WRAP should support local authorities in their collection of plastics and recycling companies in sourcing waste plastics and marketing their products.
WRAP's targets for 2004 for its work in the plastics sector are 20,000 tonne increase in mixed plastics reprocessing for industrial products and an increase of at least 20,000 tonnes in plastic bottle recycling. It also has sector-specific targets for increases in recycled content of products and a target to identify at least one new technology to produce a composite product using recycled resins with wood or rubber.
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