One in four plastic bottles now recycled as councils increase kerbside collection

Jane Ellis, packagingnews.co.uk, 07 June 2007

 

A quarter of all plastic bottles in the UK are collected for recycling, a report by Recycling of Used Plastics (Recoup) has revealed.

 

Collection has reached a rate of 25%, the equivalent of 3.3 billion bottles, with 60% of local authorities offering kerbside collection of plastic bottles to 13.9 million British households.

 

A total of 471 local authorities participated in the annual survey.

 

Additional findings revealed that the average weight of plastic bottles collected from each household has increased year-on-year by 2kg to 7.5kg. In total, the UK is collecting 132,000 tonnes of plastic bottles annually.

 

Although the current recycling rate compares with a figure of just 3% in 2001, Paul Davidson, plastics technology manager at Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), said: “Three out of every four plastic bottles are still not being collected for recycling so there remains a need to focus on good practice and remove scheme inefficiencies to optimise current systems.”

 

The survey also estimated that kerbside collection would exceed 14.6 million households in 2008, representing 56% of UK households. It also forecast that around 150,000 tonnes a year of plastic bottles would be collected by 2009, equating to a recycling rate of 28%.

 

Davidson said local authorities should be encouraged to move towards kerbside systems, which on average outperform those where Britons take their plastic bottles to be recycled by four to one.

 

The quantity of bottles collected from plastic bottle ‘bring’ schemes ranges from 2kg to more than 5kg a year for each household.

 

With regard to the recycling of other household plastics, 82 local authorities (17%) are collecting carrier bags, packaging film, tubs and trays, plant pots, EPS and other dense plastics.

 

However, it is expected that until the market for collecting mixed plastic packaging is better developed and understood, the number of local authorities collecting this material will remain comparatively low.