Third of councils fear missing landfill targets, finds Plastics 2020 survey
Simeon Goldstein, packagingnews.co.uk, 07 July 2009
A third of local councillors expect to fail on packaging recycling targets for next year, according to a survey commissioned ahead of today’s launch of the Plastics 2020 Challenge.
The Plastics 2020 Challenge is a plastics industry initiative to stop sending plastic to landfill through collaboration between the industry, government and consumers.
A survey by research consultancy ComRes, however, found that almost a third of councillors do not expect to meet recycling, composting and energy recovery targets next year, while a further third was unsure of the outlook for 2015 and 2020.
A fifth of councillors who took part in the survey said council tax bills would have to increase in 2020 if the targets were not met.
The British Plastics Federation (BPF) is one of three organisation behind the Plastics 2020 Challenge and director general Peter Davis admitted more investment in plastics reprocessing was required.
"The survey does show a concern among local authorities about achieving the landfill directive targets, but it can’t be done by the industry alone," he said.
Davis said the aim was to increase bottle recycling, typically PET and HDPE, from 35% to about 70% by 2020, and work with organisations such as Wrap to improve mixed plastics programmes.
"One obstacle to increasing the recycling rate is a lack of standardisation in collections and we would like to see central government take a lead on this," he said.
The UK was catching up with other European countries, said Davis, some of which had already achieved 70% plastics recycling. New technology was being developed all the time, he added.
"It could be that we are developing technologies that allow the UK to take a lead on this and find opportunities for doing business abroad."
Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association environment board, welcomed the plastics industry’s engagement to improve recycling. "Consumers have shown high levels of support for recycling, and with the industry’s engagement I hope we see the challenge being met."
The Plastics 2020 Challenge was first announced in May by founding organisations the Packaging and Films Association, Plastics Europe and the BPF.
The Plastics 2020 Challenge website is due to go live this afternoon and can be accessed by visiting http://www.plastics2020challenge.com/
