WRAP presented its research on mixed waste plastics at a well attended conference in London on the 5th June. The WRAP (Waste Recycling Action Programme) conference was attended by a wide ranging audience including retailers, producers, the waste industry and academics. WRAP'S authoritative research showed that, on balance, the best environmental option is to invest in technology to make use of recycled plastics.

It was widely acknowledged by those presenting at the conference that there is huge consumer and political pressure to provide a solution to the issue of waste plastics both in the UK and in Europe. The WRAP press release mentions that the UK produces around 1.4m tonnes of mixed plastic packaging waste every year – including yoghurt pots, salad bags and ready meal trays. And this figure is growing by 2-5% every year. Although it makes up only 9% of household weight by waste, its volume means it stands out in the average person’s bin.

WRAP did the research to see if it made financial sense to recycle this waste and if recycling it would be better for the environment than other options – such as burning it or sending it to landfill. In particular, WRAP wanted to see if these ordinary household items could be recycled to make new ones, rather than having to use virgin plastics every time.

Overall, landfill is the least favourable option for disposing of plastics waste. However, in terms of global warming potential the research found that incineration of plastic packaging, was the worst option. This is because more CO2 is emitted by burning plastics than by burning gas or coal to generate the same amount of energy. 

WRAP'S research report is separately attached as a pdf file. The key finding from the perspective of PIM technology is that the environmental case against both incineration and landfill has been proven. WRAP is essentially now looking for integrated solutions to solving mixed plastic waste. In summary this means that the technologies which focus on separating and extracting the high value polymers will compliment the technologies such as PIM which are more tolerant to using the mixed waste streams that are left once segregation has taken place. This is because the research shows that it will not be acceptable to burn or bury the remainder.

Meanwhile ERT is actively engaged with many of the participants at the conference including WRAP, exploring how PIM technology can be used as part of an integrated solution to the problem of mixed plastic waste streams.