The UK lacks the recycling infrastructure to cope with flexible plastics once kerbside collections become mandatory in 2027, North London Waste Authority (NLWA) has warned.
NLWA says without ‘urgent investment’ in recycling infrastructure, the system could collapse once collections become mandatory.
NLWA chair, Cllr Clyde Loakes MBE, commented: “Unless the production of flexible plastics is greatly reduced in tandem with investment in infrastructure, much of the flexible plastic collected from people’s homes will end up in a warehouse or on a container ship somewhere.
“The government and business must step up to prevent disillusionment among the public, which may end up negatively impacting their overall recycling efforts.”
NLWA also urged the UK Government to incentivise investment to process flexible plastics and to increase market demand for those recycled materials.
Firstly, by mandating higher proportions of recycled content in new products to stimulate increased market demand.
And second, by reforming the Plastic Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) system, which NLWA says currently favours exports rather than domestic processing for recycling.
While recycling is vital, we must remember that it is the reduction of unsustainable and unnecessary packaging that must always be the priority.
Cllr Loakes continued: “While recycling is vital, we must remember that it is the reduction of unsustainable and unnecessary packaging that must always be the priority.
“Mandatory recycling collections should not give producers a green light to flood the market with more flexible plastics. They must redesign packaging, cut volumes, and move to more sustainable alternatives.”
The recent Flexible Plastic Fund’s (FPF) final FlexCollect report found that flexible plastic collections at kerbside are popular with the public and easy to implement.
The report concluded the FPF project, which over the past three and a half years sought to understand how flexible plastic packaging can be collected and recycled at scale across the UK.
Cllr Loakes criticised the findings of the pilot, which was run across ten local authorities, as it had ‘little representation’ from densely populated areas with a high proportion of flats and shared housing.
These are areas that will face additional challenges and costs when implementing the new requirement to collect flexible plastics from communal bins, houses of multiple occupancy, and flats above shops.
Cllr Loakes says densely populated urban areas face additional challenges in rolling out new recycling services.
“We are concerned that the FPF’s report does not accurately represent these challenges and may overestimate the ability of dense urban areas to recycle flexible plastic,” he continued.