Materials

Shipping the UK's recovered paper and plastic bottles to China produces less carbon dioxide than sending them to UK landfill, according to a study by Wrap.

The research found that the emissions caused by transporting the material to China accounted for on average less than a third of the carbon dioxide saved by recycling.

However, many of the container ships used to transport goods from China to the UK return empty. If these ships were used to carry the waste the transport emissions would work out at less than one tenth of the overall amount of carbon dioxide saved by recycling.

Liz Goodwin, Wrap chief executive, said: "Although this study is only part of the environmental impact story, it is clear that there are significant carbon dioxide savings that can be made by shipping our unwanted paper and plastic to China.

"In some cases, we just aren't able to reprocess everything we collect or there isn't enough of it to do so. In these cases, shipping it to China, which has a high demand and need for material, makes sense in carbon dioxide terms."

The study was carried out by Oakdene Hollins and critically reviewed by consultancy ERM.