The quality of plastic packaging collected by local authorities “is increasingly becoming a concern”, despite collection rates for plastic packaging increasing from last year.
The comments come as part of RECOUP’s 2018 UK Household Plastics Collection Survey, which shows a 3% increase in plastics packaging collected, but a widespread reported fall in quality.
Concerns have been raised about the quality of council plastic packaging collections
Data and opinions from local authorities were taken as part of the survey of the UK’s 361 local authorities by the plastic recycling organisation, to examine the levels of collection of plastic for recycling from UK households.
The 2018 survey, which covers the 2017 calendar year, showed that an estimated 527,010 tonnes of plastics packaging was collected for recycling from UK households last year, an increase of 3% from the previous year.
This, according to the survey, is comprised of around 59% plastic bottles and 33% plastic pots, tubs and trays.
Consumer confusion
RECOUP released its annual local authority survey this week
As for the reasons why quality is falling, the report suggests that one of the main drivers as consumer confusion, which leads to higher contamination rates, including “conflicting national media messages, language barriers, and people just ‘not getting it’.”
RECOUP runs a nationwide campaign Pledge4Plastics, which is being rebranded to ‘Pledge 2 Recycle Plastics’. Recoup says it will “continue to provide resources and be a catalyst in supporting consumer communications” in plastics recycling across the UK.
Meanwhile, the survey revealed that 47% of local authorities in the UK also reported that they had experienced budget cuts for providing waste and recycling collections and communications initiatives, and that they are unable to put the resources in place to deliver communications and behaviour change programmes with their residents.
“Although there are obvious opportunities to increase the quantities collected for recycling, the quality of material is increasingly becoming a concern,” said RECOUP in a statement.
Quality drive
Commenting on the study, RECOUP’s technical manager, Steve Morgan, added that a drive for quality is needed.
“Although plastic bottles have seen the biggest increase in collections for three years, with volatile export markets the drive for quality is needed throughout the plastics recycling value chain.
“The opportunities are there. There are still nearly 600,000 tonnes of rigid plastics packaging that could be collected for recycling, but the consumer is often unaware how they can make a difference by their individual actions, both by what plastics packaging they can recycle in their local area and how to present it for recycling.
“There is still work to be done to develop reliable markets for some fractions of plastics, and to remove some of the discrepancies within the detail of how pot and tray recycling messages are given to the public.”
The level of contamination was also a concern with regards to ‘on-the-go’ recycling, with 75% of Local Authorities reporting material collected for recycling ‘On-the-Go’ is sent to a MRF for processing – a significant quantity is expected to either be rejected or mixed in with kerbside material to ‘hide’ high levels of contamination.
End markets
The report also referenced a study by the British Plastics Federation, which explained that the markets taking material that would have previously been sent China, suggesting that trade to these countries is beginning to show signs of ‘slowing down’.
However, the survey said it is not possible to audit market flows and precise end destinations, and called for greater transparency about end destinations of exported materials.
The survey explained that import restriction in emerging markets are beginning to impact the plastics recycling industry (Table:BPF)
Performance
The survey also revealed that whilst just four local authorities in the UK do not provide a kerbside recycling collection service that includes plastic bottles, all of them aim to have a service in place by 2019. Also, nearly 80% of Local Authorities collect plastic pots, tubs and trays as part of their kerbside collection service.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
