Currently, the UK exports two thirds of plastic collected for recycling and only recycles nine per cent of all plastics domestically.
However new analysis shows the government could be developing secondary material markets that encourage an additional two million tonnes of plastic to be recycled in the UK. This could provide 71 per cent of raw materials needed by UK manufacturers of plastic packaging and products.
A report by Green Alliance for business group, Circular Economy Task Force, argues that the government’s focus on recycling targets, which simply ‘push’ material into the waste management system, fails to develop a market for the plastic collected, leading to waste of valuable resources and pollution problems.
The report also suggests these market failures have led to over reliance on virgin materials, to the detriment of the environment, industry and the economy.
It recommends three new measures to complement recycling targets and ensure more plastic is recovered in the UK and pulled as raw material back into manufacturing.
The recommendations include, a market stabilisation fund to de-risk investment in the market, short term support to kick-start the plastic reprocessing market and mandatory recycled content requirements for all plastic products and packaging.
The report also says, to ensure a reliable market, long term strategy should provide certainty for investors and facilitate new collaborative problem solving.
“Recycling policy that focuses on increasing the amount of material collected is important but it still doesn’t encourage reliable secondary markets for the materials once they are collected,” said Nick Lakin, Group Director of corporate affairs at Kingfisher.
“Kingfisher wants to ensure the sustainable management and efficient use of key resources in our products. As this report shows, the government needs to put policies in place to help businesses like ours access more sustainable materials.”
Libby Peake, Senior Policy Adviser on resources at Green Alliance, said: “If the UK wants to lead the world in addressing the global scourge of plastic pollution, that means creating a circular economy at home that allows us to turn discarded plastics back into new products. Just collecting plastic and shipping it abroad doesn’t solve the problem.”