Plastic recycling - are things likely to get any better ?

The plastic problem

No one really disputes that plastic can be incredibly useful. However, there is increasing awareness of the problems it is causing. In the Blue Planet, David Attenborough said that plastic is “vile” and “horrible” and the amount of plastic floating in the ocean is “horrific”. Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans. That’s the equivalent of setting five garbage bags full of trash on every foot of coastline around the world.

There are of course many ways to reduce the use of plastic: use local shops with less pre-packaged products, use reusable containers, use refillable products, find alternative products that don’t use plastic, and don't buy certain products at all. This requires going through everything we buy and questioning whether much of this plastic can be avoided.

The Big Plastic Count revealed that UK households throw away 96 billion pieces of plastic every year and only 12% of it is actually recycled in the UK. The other 88% is burnt, buried, or dumped overseas.

Confused citizens

One key problem with recycling is that it isn't always obvious which items can be recycled and the labelling where present is confusing. Many products have multiple different types of plastic with different recycling characteristics. The classic example is the coffee cup which has a film which prevents the liquid from seeping into the paper which therefore means you need a special facility to recycle the cups. Even for plastic items that can be recycled, its quality decreases each time it is recycled so unlike glass or metal it can’t be recycled infinitely.

Are things likely to get any better ?

The Environment Act of 2021 seeks to establish greater consistency in recycling facilities and labelling. There is a plan for a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers (plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans made from steel or aluminium). This would mean citizens would have a strong incentive to recycle bottles as they would be worth money. This is significant as the UK uses an estimated 14 billion plastic drinks bottles per year!

Another important development is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) which would mean the producer is responsible for the costs of waste collection and recycling. The theory is that this will result in producers making products with reduced recycling requirements. Unfortunately, the implementation of these initiatives has been put on hold until after 2024.

In most areas clean plastic bottles, pots, tubs and food trays as well as empty bathroom and household cleaning containers with the tops on can all be put in the recycling bin. Clean soft plastic like crisp packets, plastic film and wrapping can separately be taken to one of the larger supermarkets. Larger hard plastic items and Tetra Paks can be taken to the recycling centre. Some items like polystyrene can’t be recycled at all.

We all need to try and reduce our use of plastic whenever we can. Where we can’t we need to use the existing recycling facilities as best as possible. It's difficult to escape the conclusion that unless we can significantly reduce our use of plastic the problems are likely to continue to grow.