Materials
Plastic

Research by RECOUP reveals bottleneck in UK plastic recycling infrastructure

By Savannah Coombe | 25 October 2022 | Add a Comment

A new report by plastic resource efficiency and recycling charity, RECOUP, has shown a bottleneck in the UK’s recycling infrastructure – available infrastructure cannot keep up with current demand.

Plastic streamTitled ‘2022 UK Plastic Packaging Sorting Reprocessing Infrastructure report’, the report found that current infrastructure needs to be increased five times for household packaging and nine times for food-grade plastic.

RECOUP analysed the UK’s ability to sort both household and non-consumer plastic packaging from other materials into plastic streams, and its ability to then reprocess the plastics into raw materials and products.

The report mapped the current operational capacities of recycling facilities to compare the requirements for recycled plastic packaging against the UK’s ability to produce the material. Benchmarks set by the UK Plastic Packaging Tax and scenarios in which material export markets are no longer an option were also used to determine its findings. RECOUP says that currently, the UK is ‘heavily reliant’ on these export markets.

The increases highlighted in the report are essential to alleviate the ‘reprocessing bottleneck’ and ownership of the problem needs to be determined, the charity says. It also states that funding should come through reform of the UK Packaging Producer Responsibility System (otherwise known as Extended Producer Responsibility).

Steve Morgan, Head of Policy and Infrastructure at RECOUP, commented: “The future of the UK’s recycling solutions for plastic packaging is in its own hands, but I’m afraid we might let slip this perfect opportunity to channel appropriate funding into the high impact areas that could transform the UK’s infrastructure capabilities.

“Effective collection and material sorting to deliver high-quality recycling outputs is essential, but we are at risk around not supporting the reprocessing sector. The capacity to produce the final raw materials to enable a circular economy to exist will just not be in place.”