WRAP releases reports on plastics recycling study

EDGWARE (Scrap Monster): The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has released reports on plastics recycling, further to completion of various research studies conducted by it. The findings of the study are likely to attract more investments into the sector and give further boost to plastics recycling rates. The organization has also published the results of an in-market trial on the collection, sorting and reprocessing of black plastic food trays.

The study on PET pots, tubs and trays reviewed existing practices and possible markets to separate and reprocess clear PET PTT collected from households. According to WRAP, reprocessing rate of the material is likely to witness massive rise if the material can achieve a value around £190 per tonne. The study also identified potential new markets where PET pots, tubs and trays could be easily reprocessed into PET sheet, coloured PET bottles, pipe, pallet or fibre.

“The data indicates a potential requirement for nine clear PET PTT process lines by 2017 representing an investment cost of £31m. This increases to 11 process lines by 2020 with a total investment cost of £39m. This review assumes that 100% of material is retained for reprocessing in the UK, but does not account for any potential imports of clear PET tray bales.”

Among the other reports published today is WRAP’s study into the feasibility of using machine-readable inks to help improve the separation of material to meet the quality standards required for the material to be processed into food grade packaging.

The study conducted by WRAP into the composition of plastics received at MRFs indicates that materials made of plastics make up almost 17% of the commingled recycling collected from households.