"It may seem strange that transporting our unwanted paper and plastic bottles such a distance would actually be better for the environment but that is what the evidence from this study shows"
Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP
Banbury, England: A new study released yesterday (Tuesday), has found that selling the UK’s used plastic bottles and paper for recycling in China saves carbon emissions when compared to local landfilling. The study commissioned by WRAP, found that despite 10,000 miles shipping journeys, less CO2 is produced than sending the wastes to landfill at home and using brand new materials.
Over the last ten years, exports of used paper have risen from 470,000 tonnes to 4.7 million tonnes and exports of used plastic bottles have gone from less than 40,000 tonnes to half a million tonnes over the same period - essentially due to the huge rise in household recycling in the UK from 7% to over 30% during that time. This illustrates the the importance of an understanding of the transport factor in any assessment of the environmental impact of this export activity, though this is not the only factor involved.
Demand from China
The UK collects more paper than can be recycled locally, but there is strong demand for it from growing economies, such as China.
Plastic bottles are also much in demand from China’s manufacturing industry, while at the same time there is currently insufficient capacity in the UK to reprocess them here.
So, do CO2 emissions from the transport of these waste materials outweigh the benefits of the recycling? The research specifically addressed this issue.
The study showed that the emissions caused by transporting the material to China account for on average less than a third of the CO2 saved by recycling. But in addition the imbalance of trade between China and the UK means that the majority of container ships return to China empty and still clearly producing CO2 emissions.
Using the ships for return loads of recyclate means that the effective transport emissions reduce to less than one-tenth of the overall amount of CO2 saved by recycling, as much of the transport emissions from shipping would have occurred anyway.
The study quantifies the CO2 emissions from transporting one tonne of recovered mixed paper or recovered plastic (PET/HDPE) bottles to China. It makes the assumption that the carbon savings of recycling in China are similar to those for the UK. However WRAP says the study is not a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The organisation says that to answer this question in full, further work on the relative environmental impacts of recycling processes in China and the UK would be required.
Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP, said:
“It may seem strange that transporting our unwanted paper and plastic bottles such a distance would actually be better for the environment but that is what the evidence from this study shows.
“Although this study is only part of the environmental impact story, it is clear that there are significant CO2 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 CO2 terms."
The study was carried out by the consultancy Oakdene Hollins and then critically reviewed by ERM.
Further information
The report, "CO2 impacts of transporting the UK’s recovered paper and plastic bottles to China" can be downloaded from the WRAP web site.
WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.
Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on www.wrap.org.uk .