Local authorities increase plastic recycling

The research, which received responses from 380 local authorities, revealed that the weight of plastic bottles being collected for recycling across the UK increased by 68% to nearly 182,000 tonnes in 2007, equivalent to 4.5 billion plastic bottles a year.

Local authority bring schemes accounted for approximately 34,482 tonnes of plastic bottles being collected, an increase of 36%. Since 2006, the number of bring sites in the UK has increased by 22% to 7,750. This is expected to increase by 18% to 9,142 sites by 2009.

The South West of England showed the highest levels of plastic bottle recycling with 21,612 tonnes. London, Eastern and North West were the next highest achievers.

The North East and West Midlands showed the lowest levels of recycling at 3,436 tonnes and 4,982 tonnes respectively.

The majority of plastic bottles collected between July and December 2007 were made from HDPE and PET, split 48% HDPE and 52% PET, but 23% could be classified as contamination because they included aluminium and steel cans, other plastics and “unusable waste” such as labels and caps.

The research, funded by Wrap and undertaken by Valpak in partnership with Recoup, also found that 23% of local authorities offered some form of collection for other household plastics, such as carrier bags and food tubs and trays.

Quantities collected ranged from one to 2,562 tonnes a year, with a total reported quantity of 10,857 tonnes.

Wrap plastics technology manager Paul Davidson, while congratulating local authorities on increasing their recycling schemes, said “additional work” was needed to support local authorities who were “involved in or keen to develop their mixed plastics collection”.

The full report can be downloaded here.

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