Plastics 2020 Challenge response to the waste review

The Plastics 2020 Challenge, an industry initiative representing the whole plastics supply chain in the UK, has welcomed the content of the government’s waste review publication. 

Peter Davis of the Plastics 2020 Challenge said:

“We welcome the clear fact that government has listened carefully to what industry has been saying for the last 12 months and has outlined some sensible actions for going forward. 

“The Plastics 2020 Challenge welcomes the government’s commitment to continue to develop and provide some loans to fund sorting and reprocessing capacity for non-bottle plastics.  The government has correctly identified the current major impediment to achieving increased rates of plastic packaging recycling.

“But our analysis shows that there needs to be further investment beyond WRAP’s current 3 year Mixed Plastics Loan Fund.  Major investment to provide the commercial sorting and reprocessing infrastructure is the key to delivering a much wider range of mixed plastics collections from local authorities.

“Without access to more sorting and reprocessing plants - to deal with food trays, margarine tubs, yogurt pots, bags and films - the steady improvements made with plastics recycling collections in recent years will stall and future targets won’t be met.

“The Plastics 2020 Challenge also welcomes the intentions of the government to provide more guidance on energy from waste and to clarify the evidence on the absence of health risk for the public.  We look forward to the further development of energy from waste as a valuable resource.  This has a vital role to help address the looming UK energy deficit and helping keep energy costs down.”
 
“We welcome government’s endorsement of the Love Where You Live campaign, in which the Plastics 2020 Challenge has played a formative role alongside WRAP and Keep Britain Tidy.  This new initiative has an important role to play in encouraging consumers to effectively participate in recycling ‘on the go’ and binning their waste rather than needlessly throwing it away.”

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Notes

The Plastics 2020 Challenge was set up by the plastics industry in 2009 to work across the supply chain and with all levels of government.  Our mission is to lead the UK towards diverting plastics from landfill by 2020 in order to reduce climate change impact, address the energy deficit, and achieve a step change in efficient use of resources. 

The founding members are the British Plastics Federation, PlasticsEurope and the Packaging & Films Association.  Together they represent 5,000 small, medium and large enterprises that employ approximately 186,000 people across the UK.  The industry’s exports are worth £4.6 billion a year and the UK remains dominant in worldwide markets. 

The Founding commitments of the Plastics 2020 Challenge relate to the 4 Rs of the waste hierarchy as follows:
 
1.  REDUCE 

Reduce wastage and environmental impact by continuous innovation of lightweight, high performance plastic materials and products.
 
2.  REUSE 

Develop new solutions and designs to increase the reuse of plastic products.
 
3.  RECYCLE 

Double plastic packaging recycling rate by 2020 through working in partnership with the whole value chain and all levels of government to facilitate and promote effective markets, technologies and infrastructure.
 
4.  RECOVER

Support high efficiency energy from waste techniques for end-of-life plastics where recycling is not an option.
 
 
Full details can be viewed at www.plastics2020challenge.com