That really IS potty!

Now councils stop recycling yoghurt pots and ‘mixed’ plastics – and start to burn them instead

THOUSANDS of tons of plastic will no longer be recycled after councils stopped taking yoghurt pots, punnets, tubs and trays.

Unable to sell the material abroad, local authorities around the country have begun closing their kerbside recycling to ‘mixed plastics’ and now take only bottles.

The processed material was previously bought by companies in China, where it would be sorted by hand and recycled into a new products.

However, buyers there now only want ‘pure’ plastics.

One contractor, which deals with 50,000 tons of plastic from councils and companies each year, has had to stop taking ‘ mixed plastic’ because it is impossible to sell.

With a drop in the market for mixed, low quality plastics causing a ‘surplus’ in Europe, councils are resorting to burning it as a ‘next best thing’ to prevent it going to landfill.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and Southampton City Council, both in Hampshire, are understood to be the first to close their recycling to this plastic.

Both foresee further closures, describing it as a ‘national issue affecting other local authorities around the country’. The council’s recycling banks previously collected yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, fruit punnets, plastic trays, bottle tops, cartons and takeaway coffee cups.

But the two local authorities have now advised residents that they will only accept plastic bottles via their kerbside recycling.

Tubs, pots and trays, which would previously have been accepted in the recycling banks, should now be thrown into their normal rubbish.

This rubbish is then either incinerated or put into landfill, depending on the area and the way the local authority operates. Geoff Quayle, of Printwaste Recycling and Shredding, which provides 19 recycling banks to Southampton City Council and 29 to Basingstoke and Deane, said the company had already stockpiled 40 tons of plastic since July.

He said: ‘The reason we can’t take the plastic from the banks is because the market is changing greatly. We don’t do the recycling ourselves, but we collect around 50,000 tons a year and sell it on. Plastic bottles are still recyclable, what’s causing a problem is the mixed plastic – yoghurt pots, plastic tubs and trays. All of that was going into the banks, but it’s becoming less and less desirable and we are struggling to find people who will take that product.’

In Southampton the plastic left over in the bins will be removed in the next two weeks and incinerated with the energy generated going to the National Grid – known as ‘reclaiming energy’.

The incineration of plastic to ‘reclaim energy’ is thought to be the next best option after recycling and is better than the plastic ending in landfill.

Julian Kirby, from Friends of the Earth, said: ‘We can’t burn our way out of the plastic pollution crisis. Incinerators belch polluting, poisonous fumes and ash into the atmosphere.

‘The ultimate solution is to avoid the use of unnecessary plastics in the first place. This is why we’re campaigning for legislation to end the use of all but the most essential plastics.’

A spokesman for Southampton City Council said: ‘ This is a national issue. The plastics that were collected in the banks can return to being disposed of in residents’ general waste bins, with energy recovery taking place.’