Manchester, England: Processing waste plastics in the UK and Europe is still a better option than export abroad for environmental, ethical and legal reasons – particularly for waste electrical equipment, according to Axion Recycling.
The comments came following a recent WRAP report which said shipping waste plastic bottles to China was an environmentally-friendly thing to do as it saved carbon emissions (see MoreThanWaste article), though Axion Recycling says it does endorse the findings. But the company argues that recycling waste plastic locally brings even greater benefits.
The company says that its Axion Polymers division operates the UK’s leading recycling plant for plastics from WEEE with the capacity to save around 3,000 tonnes per month of CO2 emissions based on current output – equivalent to around 30 million car-driving kilometres per month.
Axion says collection and recycling of its waste plastic in-feed material generates at total of around 220 kg CO2 per tonne of polymer compound produced, based on a similar methodology to the WRAP study. The company estimates that this represents approximately 7% of the 3,400 kg CO2 produced in making one tonne of virgin polystyrene that is estimated by Plastics Europe (quoted by WRAP in its report). The transport and collection element of Axion’s carbon impact accounts for only about 63kg of CO2 per tonne of polymer compound produced.
Close-up of mixed WEEE (Photo: Axion Polymers)
Axion explains that its "innovative processing system" uses more than 13 individual sorting and separation stages to process waste plastics from a co-mingled waste stream at its advanced Salford plant. It supplies its Axpoly-branded recycled polymers to UK and European-based companies for use in various sheet-extruded and injection-moulded new products, such as parts for washing machines and kitchen cabinets.
Axion’s Commercial Director Roger Morton agrees with WRAP’s view that recycling, wherever it takes place, is much better from a carbon point of view than landfill or incineration.
However he comments that it still makes even more sense to do the reprocessing close to the waste source in the UK as this saves yet more carbon and more importantly, ensures that any residues from the recycling process are disposed of responsibly at home rather than exported to another country.
“This is particularly true for WEEE, which contains complex mixtures of materials and additives,” he says. “While there is a carbon saving from shipping surplus plastic overseas for recycling compared to landfilling or incinerating it in the UK, by recycling this material at home, producers of plastic waste save even more carbon and can be confident that they have discharged their duty of care for its ethical disposal under UK-controlled legislative standards.
“This has to be the most sustainable solution for the recovery and preservation of valuable resources for our home markets,” adds Roger.
Axion’s Technical Director, Keith Freegard also comments on the benefits of close-to-source recycling of waste, saying:
“It is clear that by concentrating the waste material into useful output product such as high-grade polymer resin, the exported tonnage is then more densely packed into shipping containers and this consists entirely of material that will be converted into saleable goods. The potential CO2 impact of shipping a large proportion of unwanted waste, which is then disposed in uncontrolled ways such as open incineration, is incalculable.
Further information
For more information visit Axion Polymers website at www.axionpolymers.com.