Roger Baynham of the British Plastics Federation warns that a lack of understanding of the types of plastic food packaging being imported into the UK means we do not know what capacity or infrastructure is needed to recycle it
For those close to the coal face, the question on the lips of many in the plastic recycling and waste sectors is whether we are facing a Domesday scenario for exports of UK plastic packaging waste which have, over the past decade, increasingly underpinned the UK’s ability to meet EU recycling targets.
As the graphs below illustrate, the restrictions on the import of solid waste into China announced 12 months ago have resulted in the emergence of new markets in Asia, as Chinese recyclers migrate activities to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Consequently, around 60% of the plastic packaging collected in UK for recycling has continued to be exported. However, since the publication of 2018 Q2 data, we have seen further restrictions on the import of plastic waste for recycling into these countries, with tales of log-jammed ports full of household and other low quality plastic waste from the developed world.
On top of this we have reports of EA investigations into suspected illegal waste shipments to Poland, with the prospect of around 1000 tonnes of waste exported for recycling being repatriated to the UK. These developments should provide serious concerns about what the Q3 data is going to look like and the government should now be considering what action it can take to mitigate this.
The National Audit Office has been highly critical of the UK’s recycling strategy and has echoed many of the BPF Recycling Group’s concerns, contained in its proposals for reform of the PRN system as well as the proposals to incentivise and encourage plastic recycling. The best that can be said of the PRN system is that it has delivered lowest cost compliance but as we have seen in the mainstream news media, there is an environmental consequence of a flawed system that has encouraged the export of low quality contaminated household waste to largely unregulated markets for recycling.
The obvious question is: why aren’t we recycling these plastics in the UK?
Apart from the economic consequences of an export-led recycling strategy that has helped to drive so many UK household plastic recycling facilities to the wall over the past few years, one of the real problems is that we have no real understanding of what type of plastic packaging is being exported — bottles; pots, tubs and trays; film or even, as some have speculated , whether it is obligated plastic packaging waste at all. Similarly, there is no requirement for UK recyclers to declare the types of plastic packaging or the polymers they are recycling. Consequently, we have a completely inadequate understanding of what type of infrastructure and capacity is required to recycle the various types of plastic packaging in the UK.
The real sadness is that this information could easily be obtained by ensuring that accredited recyclers and exporters are required to include this information as part of the existing accreditation process – a point that has previously been highlighted by the Government’s Advisory Committee on Packaging. In relation to exports, there is a widely held view that the UK should adopt the Scottish requirement for mandatory registration of annex VIIs as part of the PERN reporting procedure. In short, there is no need to reinvent the wheel – just to amend what already exists (in the National Packaging Waste Database).
The mood music coming from Defra seems to be concentrating on making plastic packaging more recyclable through a ‘modulated’ PRN system. Whilst this is good and greater recyclability is to be encouraged, let us not forget the current real-world issues UK recyclers face. Here we have a choice: to drive investment, encourage innovation in new technologies such as chemical recycling and futureproof end markets for recycled plastics by driving up material quality through robust UK collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure — or to simply rely on comparatively low cost, less regulated global markets, which may or may not exist. The Q3 data will be revealing.
In light of recent news coverage and press statements, the last thing the country needs is anything further undermining of the public’s confidence in plastics recycling. Should the Q3 figures be bad, the real concern is the potential for misinterpretation. We do not need more misleading, unjustifiable headlines proclaiming that plastic is unrecyclable, which will ultimately result in more confusion and less material entering the recycling stream.
Roger Baynham is chairman of the Recycling Group of the British Plastics Federation
I wish when graphs or charts are shown that all the axes are labeled correctly. This is bad engineering/science communication. I know from the top chart that it is tonnes. This does not exclude the fully correct way to present data. We should be showing the new students of engineering and science the industry standard methods of correct presentation in commerce.
Why are we concentrating on making plastic packaging more recyclable? Where does all this material go- if it is or can be recycled? Degraded plastics will continue to contribute to pollution unless they are collected at source and consolidated. With the volume increasing exponentially all the time, can we not process it ourselves and turn it into ‘Novawood ‘ to reduce the number of trees felled for rough timber? Surely we must reduce the amount of plastic we use in this ‘throw-away ‘ society?
The amount of plastic packaging we turn over domestically is huge; thankfully some supermakets are reverting to paper bags for fruit and veg instead of moulded containers, but as Local Councils have reduced street cleaning, the amount of plastic litter is increasing, encouraged by the use of bin liners left in the streets and ignorant fast-food eaters and drinkers. The Govt. needs to get its act together and after next March there may be a lot of ex-Brexit civil servants spare to deal with it.
In my hometown by the sea the council have provided a number of open-top bins for use by the public, to the delight of the local gull population that pull all manner of plastic containers out in search of junk food only to leave the rubbish scattered far and wide by the wind. Doubtless some of this ends up in the sea to add to the environmental burden. Simple solution: cover the bins with a swing-top..?
At one particularly non-commercialised beach in Cornwall last week, I watched a herring gull eat a fish that it had caught from the sea – it was a delight to behold rather than watching them feast on burger and chips leftovers or pecking at odd greasy plastic food container fragments!
I have seen a process for tuning wast plastic into fuel for cars and trucks. This came up a few years ago and I wonder what has happened to it. It looked like a table top re processing plant that took plastic bottles and other waste packaging and through a process of heating and distilation resulted in at the first stage diesel and put through again neat petrol but without the additives. OK for lawn mowers and other low grade industrial and agricultural engines.
Michael Dowling’s point about axis labelling is good. I have no idea what Roger Baynham’s education was, but I suspect it was not based upon technology and the proper investigation, experiment and presentation of data? We (sadly as Engineers) are all familiar with the manner in which supposedly ‘scientific’ material is provided to a gullible public in advertisements and marketing ‘blurb..(and indeed on the sides of buses by political purposes) And the advent of the www and the internet has released millions/billions of suspect articles . Add ‘fake-news’ : material which is deliberately incorrect to confuse: and where are we? Going towards an intellectual black hole?
Volatile Corrosion Inhibitors (VCI) make recycling even worse because many VCI companies won’t tell the user what chemicals are impregnated into the plastic (despite regulations requiring such notification). Most of those VCI chemicals are hazardous per the OSHA Technical Division. Also, some VCI companies make the false claim that because some of their chemicals are used as food preservatives (i.e. sodium nitrite), that their plastics are safe despite the volatilization of these chemicals.
Plastic is a very versatile material, but where plastics are now contaminating all layers of the ecosystem (microplastics) we probably could do with a holistic approach. Laws could be implemented limiting the manufacture and use (and import/export) of plastics to those that could be recycled, and funding made to develop safe ways to dispose of them. I do not like the idea of exporting our rubbish to less stringent recyclers abroad. Ultimately waste plastic could be burned in oxygen and high temperatures to minimise any residual poisons, but really, we need to use less of the stuff.