AWS Eco Plastics questions government recycling figures

AWS Eco Plastics commercial director Duncan Oakes questioned government claims that the UK recycled two thirds of all packaging waste.

“If recovery is included within these figures then they are most certainly misleading,” he told Packaging News.

Oakes’ comments follow the publication of figures by Defra and the Environment Agency this week, which revealed that UK businesses contributed to the recovery of more than 7m tonnes of packaging waste, of which 6.6m tonnes were recycled.

However, many waste management services have welcomed the government’s comments.

Greenstar chief executive Ian Wakelin said that the waste management company was attracting “more and more commercial customers” and added that Defra’s announcement was “welcome, but not unexpected”.

He said: “Government regulation and landfill taxes are playing their part in influencing businesses to waste less, and I detect a wave of determined effort to cut packaging at source, to be more economical about what businesses use and to recycle as much of their waste as possible.”

Closed Loop’s chief executive Chris Dow added that it is good to “take time out and congratulate the consumer”.

“It’s a great opportunity to acknowledge the consumer for their participation and commitment to recycling, but at the same time it shows how far we could go if we introduced more uniform collection systems,” he said.

The Environmental Services Association (ESA) called on the government to extend its objectives beyond 2010.

An ESA spokesman said the body encouraged the government “to set further domestic packaging recycling targets beyond 2010, to ensure levels of recycling continued to increase at a sustainable rate and deliver vital carbon savings”.

Oakes warned that the main challenge the industry faced was “honesty and integrity”.

“Many UK councils insist that their plastics are sorted within the UK, however on investigation it is often the case that they sell to traders who simply load the material into containers for export to overseas markets,” he said.

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