IN THE SHADOW OF A PLASTIC MOUNTAIN
HOW JUST 14.7 PER CENT OF OUR PLASTIC PACKAGING IS RECYCLED
L ESS than 15 per cent of all plastic packaging is recycled in the UK to use again. We use plastic packaging every day whether as the packaging for bags of rice and pasta, the bottles we drink from, or even the protective film on ready meals.
Plastic packaging is used to protect parcels, for heavy-duty bin liners, and for the blood bags used in hospitals.
In all, the UK uses 2.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging a year - and just 328,000 tonnes are recycled. More than HALF of our total plastic packaging consumption - or 1.4m tonnes - is incinerated or dumped in landfill sites, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). That’s despite the UK’s plastic reprocessing capacity - for both packaging and non-packaging plastic - estimated at almost 600,000 tonnes. It includes 340,000 tonnes of capacity to reprocess bottles and 175,000 tonnes to reprocess plastic pots, tubs and trays. More than a fifth of the UK’s plastic packaging - or 514,000 tonnes - is exported to other countries after it has been recovered.
China has remained the dominant destination for recovered plastic packaging, buying 334,000 tonnes of it from the UK every year. However, at the start of 2018 China banned the importation of plastic waste from all over the world.
That leaves the UK - and other countries - with a huge problem.
Louise Edge, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “When the EU started pushing the UK to recycle more, we were trailing Europe by quite a distance.
“Instead of catching up we decided to export half of our waste to countries like China.
“Now that China has shut up shop we have a problem in the form of a growing mountain of plastic waste.
“We must recycle all of the plastic we produce, and the only way to do that is to produce a lot less.
“We need to address the root of the problem and stop making trillions of disposable products from an indestructible material.”
Within the UK, the majority of plastic packaging that gets recycled - 204,000 tonnes worth every year is turned back into plastic packaging.
Some 52,000 tonnes is recycled for construction, and 10,000 tonnes used in the car industry.
A spokesperson from the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs, said: “We are already taking significant steps by taking nine billion plastic bags out of circulation with our carrier bag charge and introducing a ban on plastic microbeads. “We will crack down on plastics by eliminating all avoidable plastic waste through extending the 5p plastic bag charge to small retailers, remove consumer single use plastics from the government estate, support the water industry to significantly increase water fountains and work with retailers on introducing plastic-free supermarket aisles.”