Milk target is boost for recycling sector

Managing director Edward Kosier said the target, outlined in last month’s milk roadmap, was “ambitious, but feasible”.

Around 80% of milk sold in the UK is in HDPE bottles, using some 120,000 tonnes of plastic. Plastics recycling body Recoup estimates that 37% of HDPE milks bottles are recycled, compared with the bottle average of 25%.

Nextek has previously worked with Nampak Plastics and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap) to trial large-scale HDPE recycling facilities.

Nampak Plastics business development director James Crick said he supported the scheme’s focus because milk bottles are “something people use every day”.

Nampak has already committed to producing bottles in the UK with 30% recycled content during 2009, with the potential to increase this in the future.

It also plans to open its own 13,000-tonne capacity HDPE reprocessing plant in the north-east of England in 2009.

 Milk roadmap from www.defra.gov.uk/foodrin/milk/supplychainforum/taskforce.htm

Milk roadmap: Targets for 2020
* 50% of packaging to be made from recycled material (10% by 2010, 30% by 2015)
* 20-30% reduction in greenhouse gases on farms, based on 1990 levels
* 40% of energy to come from renewable sources
* 70% of non-natural farm waste to be recycled/recovered

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