The Waste and Resource Action Programme announced plans to double the amount of plastics recycled in Great Britain.
Almost 500,000 metric tons of post-consumer plastic bottles enter the waste stream every year in the UK and it has been widely recognized that effective recycling strategies for these waste bottles could make a significant contribution to overall plastics recycling levels in the UK. Currently, however, only 3% of this material is collected for recycling, primarily due to the costs of collection and sorting bottles from the municipal waste stream.
WRAP hopes to improve this by announcing a major grant competition to address the lack of sorting/processing infrastructure in the UK. The company, which has a business mission of promoting a step-change in recycling in the UK, intends to offer contributory financial support to companies to develop processing infrastructure to divert an additional 20,000 metric tons per year of post-consumer plastic bottles from the waste stream. It is intended that the new processing facility or facilities will come on stream in 2003, with specified intermediate tonnages until full capacity is reached by 2005.
In a new study commissioned by WRAP, entitled Opportunities for Bottle Recycling, SMART Targets and Strategies to Acheive Them" collection scheme economics has been identified as one of the key challenges which needs to be addressed.
WRAP's Materials Sector Manager for Plastics, Paul Davidson, said: "Improving the economics will make plastic bottle collection more attractive to local authorities, and this can be achieved by creating regional automatic sorting facilities which offer economies of scale and avoid the high costs associated with manual sorting. Once local authorities can justify the inclusion of plastic bottle collections in their waste management contracts, and the collection and sorting infrastructure is in place, UK reprocessing capacity will then grow to accommodate the increased volume."
The new study also emphasizes the need for accurate cost projections for plastic bottle recycling and disposal. Using an economic model which integrates the costs incurred and the income generated by collection schemes delivering mixed bottles to regional facilities employing automatic identification and sorting technology, the study estimates that plastic bottle recycling would have an overall cost significantly lower than the current costs of collection and disposal.
WRAP is offering support of up to 50% of the total project value by means of a competitive procedure. The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 22nd March 2002. Details of the application process, guidance notes and criteria are available on WRAP’s Website. The proposals will be evaluated on a value-for-contribution basis, and individual and group bidders are welcome. Final agreement of the support will be subject to EU State Aids clearance.