Banbury, England, UK: The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has released its latest survey on the collection and recycling of plastics by local authorities.
The report “Local Authority Plastics Collection Survey 2008' was produced by Valpak Consulting in conjunction with Recoup (RECycling of Used Plastics) following a commissioned from WRAP, and is the fourteenth such survey to be produced.
Approximately 182,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were collected in the UK in 2007, which is equivalent to 4,525 million plastic bottles, according to WRAP. This means that around 35% of bottles in the household waste stream are now being collected for recycling compared to only 3% in 2001.
The 2007 tonnage was also a hefty 68% up on the 2006 total of approximately 108,000 tonnes.
Bring systems still play an important role with 19% of tonnages coming from that source in 2007. Tonnages for bring sites were up by just over 9,000 tonnes when compared to the previous survey covering 2006.
The report says that "Most authorities consider bioplastics to cause waste stream challenges and contamination, although a significant proportion are unsure about their impacts".
Further information
The full report can be downloaded from the WRAP website.