MoreThanWaste.com - WRAP supported waste infrastructure to save 12.5m tonnes of CO2 (16/10/2007)

Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK: Statistics revealed by WRAP at last week’s annual open meeting show that new infrastructure supported by the organisation, will recycle more than 86m tonnes of material over their lifetime, with 12.5 million tonnes of C02 equivalent saved.

The open meeting was held to review progress and achievements over the past year.

WRAP says that 5.8 million tonnes of extra annual recycling capacity have been created, and the estimated combined impact of its activities has saved over 1m tonnes of C02.

WRAP Chief Executive Dr Liz Goodwin said:

Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive. (Photo: WRAP)

“The growing public concern about the need for action is underpinned by the ever-increasing body of evidence pointing towards the impacts of climate change and the challenges we face in tackling this problem. Both waste prevention and recycling have a role to play in addressing climate change. For recycling, the figures produced as a result of our work to understand the environmental benefits of recycling clearly show that the current UK recycling activity is the same as taking 5 million cars off the road”.

Dr Goodwin used examples of WRAP’s work in her speech. Areas quoted included:

overcoming technical barriers to allow recycled plastic to be used for milk bottles,
creating an industry-wide agreement in the retail sector to take action on packaging,
developing Quality Standards for materials such as recycled paper and compost,
championing the use of recycled content in major developments such as the 2012 Olympics and
increasing public awareness on the importance of recycling.

She also highlighted the challenges that lay ahead saying:

“I want the public and businesses to make the connection between actions they can take to reduce and recycle and the contribution this makes to resource efficiency and climate change. WRAP has an important role in this – working with all parts of the resource efficiency loop to make it as easy, efficient and economically sustainable as possible for everyone to prevent waste and to recycle more”.

WRAP achievements in 2006/7

Agreed with the Olympic Delivery authority a 20% (by value) requirement for reused and recycled content
Nine new organisations sign up to Courtauld Commitment
£45m increase in the turnover of the recycling sector stimulated
Launched the first of 12 quality protocols, on compost
Increased applications to join the quality compost scheme by 40% resulting from the new protocol

WRAP achievements to date:

WRAP supported recycling infrastructure processes an extra 5.8m tonnes of materials per year consisting of:

130,000 tonnes of plastic
137,000 tonnes of glass
349,000 tonnes of compost
495,000 tonnes of paper
507,000 tonnes of wood – representing 42% of the UK’s domestic capacity
4.17m tonnes of aggregate

Further information

A full copy of the WRAP Review (Oct 2007) can be found at
www.wrap.org.uk/AnnualReview2006_07 .

A copy of Liz Goodwin’s speech can be found on the WRAP website.


	WRAP supported waste infrastructure to save 12.5m tonnes of CO2 (16/10/2007) Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK: Statistics revealed by WRAP at last week’s annual open meeting show that new infrastructure supported by the organisation, will recycle more than 86m tonnes of material over their lifetime, with 12.5 million tonnes of C02 equivalent saved. The open meeting was held to review progress and achievements over the past year. WRAP says that 5.8 million tonnes of extra annual recycling capacity have been created, and the estimated combined impact of its activities has saved over 1m tonnes of C02. WRAP Chief Executive Dr Liz Goodwin said: Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive. (Photo: WRAP) “The growing public concern about the need for action is underpinned by the ever-increasing body of evidence pointing towards the impacts of climate change and the challenges we face in tackling this problem. Both waste prevention and recycling have a role to play in addressing climate change. For recycling, the figures produced as a result of our work to understand the environmental benefits of recycling clearly show that the current UK recycling activity is the same as taking 5 million cars off the road”. Dr Goodwin used examples of WRAP’s work in her speech. Areas quoted included: overcoming technical barriers to allow recycled plastic to be used for milk bottles, creating an industry-wide agreement in the retail sector to take action on packaging, developing Quality Standards for materials such as recycled paper and compost, championing the use of recycled content in major developments such as the 2012 Olympics and increasing public awareness on the importance of recycling. She also highlighted the challenges that lay ahead saying: “I want the public and businesses to make the connection between actions they can take to reduce and recycle and the contribution this makes to resource efficiency and climate change. WRAP has an important role in this – working with all parts of the resource efficiency loop to make it as easy, efficient and economically sustainable as possible for everyone to prevent waste and to recycle more”. WRAP achievements in 2006/7 Agreed with the Olympic Delivery authority a 20% (by value) requirement for reused and recycled content Nine new organisations sign up to Courtauld Commitment £45m increase in the turnover of the recycling sector stimulated Launched the first of 12 quality protocols, on compost Increased applications to join the quality compost scheme by 40% resulting from the new protocol WRAP achievements to date: WRAP supported recycling infrastructure processes an extra 5.8m tonnes of materials per year consisting of: 130,000 tonnes of plastic 137,000 tonnes of glass 349,000 tonnes of compost 495,000 tonnes of paper 507,000 tonnes of wood – representing 42% of the UK’s domestic capacity 4.17m tonnes of aggregate Further information A full copy of the WRAP Review (Oct 2007) can be found at www.wrap.org.uk/AnnualReview2006_07 . A copy of Liz Goodwin’s speech can be found on the WRAP website.