There could be significant economic benefits from increased recycling of mixed plastics in the UK.  Previous WRAP research has suggested that the recovered plastics market has a potential value of £250 - £500 million. Coupled with this are benefits in terms of new ‘green’ jobs.

Marcus Gover, Director of Market Development said; “WRAP’s report shows that the overall picture for plastics is positive. Despite the volatility in prices of the past two years, the market is strong.” He went on to say; “There has been extensive investment in UK plastics reprocessing capacity however, the UK still exports a large proportion of the plastics it collects for recycling. Given the strong UK demand for high quality recycled plastics, this represents a great opportunity for UK manufacturers to exploit this green niche.”
 
WRAP’s market situation report also identifies further key themes from the plastics recycling sector:

• The plastic bottle recycling rate now stands at over 40% and there has been extensive investment in UK plastic bottle processing capacity over the past two years;

• Attention has now turned to collecting and developing infrastructure to recycle mixed packaging plastics, less than 5% of which is currently recycled. Around 20% of local authorities already operate kerbside mixed plastic collections, and 2011 will see the operation of the UK’s first mixed plastic reprocessing facility;

• Recycling of non-packaging plastics has also increased, this is partly as a result of regulatory factors, however a further driver for market development was the launch of the Non-Packaging Plastics Quality Protocol.

For further information and to download a copy of the full report, please visit www.wrap.org.uk