A study by RECycling of Used Plastics (RECOUP) published in 2019 estimated that the UK’s recycling industry needed to double its capacity to sort and recycle post-consumer plastics by 2022 to meet the government’s target to use 30% recycled content in all plastics packaging produced or imported into the UK. However, RECOUP said that the COVID-19 pandemic provided the industry with extra challenges to improve UK waste processing infrastructure.
In its updated report, RECOUP said that the pandemic had pushed oil prices lower, which led to lower prices of virgin plastics. As a result, using virgin plastics is now more attractive and economically viable for packaging producers. The pandemic also creates challenges, including site closures and worker shortages.
At the same time, the UK government maintains its plans to implement the Plastic Packaging Tax in April 2022. Hence, RECOUP urged the government and the industry to better understand the impact of the new tax and how the 30% recycled content target could be achieved. RECOUP said that UK plastic waste sorting and reprocessing capacity needed to increase by 100% from the current 230,000 tons/year to meet the 30% recycled content target. It also said that to achieve the target for food-grade rigid household plastics packaging, the capacity has to rise by 200%.
