The British Plastic Federation (BPF) has released its Recycling Roadmap for 2021, highlighting what the UK would need to do to achieve greater plastic recycling and reduce the current reliance on exports.
With appropriate measures in place, and investment and legislation changes, The BPF estimates that plastic recycled within UK facilities could increase 3.5 times by the year 2030 and the volume of materials exported more than halved.
The report highlights 16 key changes that are needed to impact upon the amount of plastic recycled. Some of these link closely to the upcoming changes to the Resources and Waste Strategy, which are due to enter the second round of consultations this spring. These include the consistency of plastic waste collection schemes across all local authorities, the kerbside collection of plastic film, increases in the use of recycled material in new products and better communication to the public about what can be recycled.
The development and introduction of new technologies would also be a key component of rapid change, with emphasis put upon chemical recycling and other methodologies being used at a much greater scale, which could lead to the volume of plastic processed increasing dramatically.