Plastics &
their new life
Plastic: we use it every day, it is convenient – but what happens once we throw it away?
lastic is everywhere: in products on our supermarket shelves; in our clothing and shoes; casing our electricals; and in our infrastructure. It is unavoidable and for a good reason. Plastic is a fantastic material: it is durable but lightweight, malleable but remains resilient, and hygienic. When speaking about packaging, co-founder of Packaging Collective, David Harding-Brown says:
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Plastic has been used for many, many years and has been developed as a low-cost and lightweight structure, to fulfil many roles. The main aim of packaging is to contain, protect and preserve the product inside. Plastic was designed to fulfil many of those functions
Conrad Hart-Brooke, packaging development manager at Pladis Global (McVities, GODVIA), adds: “It remains the highest performing and cost-effective ways of wrapping products. Printability and aesthetics, it scores highly too.”
Ultimately, it is convenient for consumers and cheap for retailers. However, those same physical qualities mean it poses as one of the greatest threats we face to our environment. Since its introduction, this versatile material has been manufactured in a surplus, but also disposed of recklessly and in huge amounts. We use five million tonnes of plastic in the UK every year, nearly half of which is packaging, and the demand is rising.
Environmental impact
We are now only realising the full extent to which our irresponsible disposal of plastics damages our environment. Plastic waste does not biodegrade. It can linger for centuries in landfill, where it refuses to decompose, or ends up polluting our natural environment. It is stubborn and found where we don’t want it – contaminating our waters and soil, then harming ecosystems.
Mr Harding-Brown, from Packaging Collective says: “Some people would say plastic becomes a problem with litter, ocean micro-plastics, landfill. But the issue is just the sheer quantity, irrespective of any benefits you get from using plastic packaging.”
It is the magnitude of plastic which is our problem, and this is due to our throwaway culture. We lead a convenient lifestyle where single-use has become the norm. We buy a coffee with plastic lid on the way to work, place our groceries in small plastic bags, then later have a ready-meal for dinner. The issue is “it’s those hundreds of little pieces of plastic that we just use once, tip the contents out, eat something then you’re left with this bit of plastic film,” says Mr Hart-Brooke, Pladis. Most of the time we are on-the-go so much of this waste ends up in landfill - “the problem is people don’t dispose of it properly,” adds Mr Harding-Brown, Packaging Collective.
If disposed of in a sensible way through recycling, we can limit these environmental impacts. But what journey does our plastic take when we recycle it?
UK Recycling Infrastructure
The UK has a diverse range of recycling infrastructure since they were developed at different times. However, the core principles remain the same. It is probably self-explanatory, but our recycled content is mostly collected by kerbside, household waste recycling centres or civic amenity sites. Then gets transported to a material recycling facility (MRF).
But what happens to plastic after it is collected?
Here is a brief example of a recycling facility in London and how it functions:
Where is this recycled produce going?
The recycled material can end up anywhere, it just depends on the demand from the open market. Deputy general manager of Western Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA), Sharon Ross says:
“It must meet certain standards because we don’t want it going off to any old lender or ending up in a landfill site. Cory, our contractor, carries out due diligence. So, things are sent for recycling and are turned into new products. Most of those are in the UK currently. They have a good reputation, so we do get the best outlets in the UK. But there is a good 40% that we send the EU and all over - they can get a better price but also because there is a no available market in this country.”
Deal or no deal
Brexit may have an anticipated impact on the markets of recycled material. UK recycling authorities are estimating the level of impact projected if a no deal happens.
“We have a lot of our outlets in UK and in fact our contractor is been actively increasing the outlets in the UK to mitigate the impacts of Brexit. We expect the largest issue of a no deal Brexit is the queuing at the ports which will impact the transportation,” says Mark Broxup, General Manager at WRWA.
The issues with recycling
Contamination is a “major issue” that arises with reprocessing material. “If there is so much contamination in a load delivered, we have to condemn the whole load,” says Sharon Ross, Deputy General Manager at WRWA.
In addition, a Freedom of Information request outlined that 8,777 tonnes of the material collected in kerbside recycling bins by Leeds City Council was rejected during the sorting process in 2017/18. The response details why:
Much of the contamination authorities deal with is due to misinformed residents, unknowingly placing contaminants in their recycling bins or, occasionally, down to careless behaviours and attitudes.
Another problem concerning recycling is the inconsistencies between local councils.