It’s an exciting time for those hiring industrial shredders as the focus on the need for plastic recycling has improved over the past year.
Whether it was due to David Attenborough’s focus on the problem or the refusal of Governments across Asia to take any more plastic waste from the West, the problem of plastic waste and need for a better recycling solution has become abundantly clear.
Now the UK needs the infrastructure to support its efforts these need to come from industry.
Here are some of the latest headlines from the UK.
Biffa opens £27.5m plastic recycling plant
Seaham, County Durham is the site of a new £27.5 million plastic recycling plant that should help the UK address its plastic recycling aims.
Members of WRAPs plastic recycling pact have pledged to ensure all the plastic packaging they use will be recyclable, reusable, or compostable. This involves the elimination of all single use plastics, 70% will be effectively recycled or composted and all plastic packaging will have an average of 30% recycled content. The final point will also be enforced by a government tax in 2022.
However, people in the plastics recycling industry have bemoaned the lack of infrastructure to support these aims as the UK currently has the infrastructure to recycle about 300,000-350,000 tonnes of the 1.1 million tonnes of plastic packaging it collects each year.
This new plastics processing plant should go some way to ensuring that plastics in the UK are processed as effectively as possible. Having a new plant in the UK reduces the overall carbon footprint of exporting plastics to other countries to be processed, burned or placed in landfill as it removes the transport footprint.
Michael Topham, chief executive at Biffa, said: “This facility will help the UK address two of its most pressing issues – plastic waste and the climate emergency.
“Whilst we must work towards reducing overall plastic consumption as a society, the fact remains that plastic has a vital role as a lightweight, durable, low energy-intensity material, that if recycled properly can have a sustainable role in modern life.
“Facilities like ours at Seaham will help ensure that we can recycle our own plastic waste here in the UK, creating jobs in the green economy and stimulating the development of more sustainable packaging.”
The new plant is expected to process an additional 20,000 tonnes of plastic a year, increasing capacity by 5% in the UK at this plant alone. It is expected the new plant will bring 100 new fulltime jobs to the area.
Biffa will draw on the waste streams it already recycles and processes them at this facility, which his expected to draw £40 million in revenue for the company.
In addition to this Biffa is also planning to build a £7 million plastic recycling plan in Washington, County Durham to expand its recycling capacity for plastic tubs and trays.
The Environmental Bill due to go before Parliament on 30 January has been revised to improve plastics recycling. For example, in light of the plastic waste scandal the Bill pledges to review international policy every two years in order to match up UK policy to international needs and trends.
Theresa Villiers, environment secretary, said: “We are facing climate change and our precious natural environment is under threat. We need to take decisive action.
“We have set out our pitch to be a world leader on the environment as we leave the EU and the Environment Bill is a crucial part of achieving this aim.
“It sets a gold standard for improving air quality, protecting nature, increasing recycling, and cutting down on plastic waste.”
The bill will also introduce a new charge on single use plastic items in order to reduce their use, as well as new powers to introduce a reverse bottle deposit scheme.
There is still some way to go with many people arguing it is a shame that the issue of plastic recycling has only come to light after other countries started to refuse to take plastic landfill from the UK and other European countries.
Hackney Council Launches Reverse Vending Machine On Estate
While we have seen reverse vending machines popping up in supermarkets as a result of a push by Michael Gove last year to improve plastics recycling, we haven’t seen many of them in residential areas.
That could be due to change as Hackney Council has launched a reverse vending machine on an estate in the borough.
Councillor Jon Burke, Hackney Council cabinet member for energy, waste, transport, and public realm, said: “While a small number of reverse vending trials have been undertaken by large supermarkets within their premises, we believe that estates and large apartment complexes have significant potential as reverse vending locations in an environment where people are increasingly conducting smaller food shopping trips and visiting supermarkets less frequently.”
We look forward to the results of the trial.
Cup Recycling Programme Launches In Bristol
Single use plastics are under the microscope everywhere, but one area that hasn’t been particularly well tackled is coffee cups.
In fact fewer than four per cent of the total of 3 billion coffee cups used in the UK each year are recycled.
This could be due to change shortly though with a cup recycling programme due to be launched in Bristol. The For Cup’s sake campaign will see 100 bins specifically for coffee cups and cups for hot beverages placed around Bristol on popular commuter routes.
Keeping it local, the cups will be baled and processed locally at Bristol Waste Site, and a tree will be planted for every 10,000 cups recycled as part of the tree for every child campaign in Bristol.
The cups will then be sent to the CupCycling facility at the James Cropper paper mill in the Lake District. This is where the plastic lining is removed and the paper is then recyclable. The plastic lining is also recycled and sent to plants with the capacity to turn this into usable plastics for upcycling purposes.
