The recovery and resource specialists, Axion Consulting, have recently stated that plastic recycling is going to be a new focus of the waste industry in the UK during 2012. The consultants have said that there is going to be new work done on the recycling of HDPE and PET bottles.
Currently around 50 percent of dairy and drink bottles that are made out of plastic are being recycled. Keith Freegard, the director of the consulting company, has stated that new technology investment is going to mean there is a major improvement in this figure.
He also stated, “Local authorities are making increased efforts to collect plastics from households and this is going to be a focus of the industry in the future. The UK needs to focus on finding a new technology that is going to help deal with plastics that have been mixed together. Just collecting the plastics is not enough and there have to be better ways of coordinating and sorting out these plastics to improve the overall recycling figure.”
Axion Consulting expects that for the growth to continue new investments must be made into the industry and this is the only way that capacity is going to increase. Mr Freegard continued, “New waste streams need to be established and this is something that people are realising.
We want to create a way for mixed waste to be sorted so that it can be recycled in the most efficient way possible. For example, some materials will be sent to provide energy while others can be reprocessed and washed.”
The company expects that if fundamental changes are to occur in the recycling industry then new technologies need to be investigated. The only way for these investigations to take place is for people to realise the importance of plastic recycling and encourage funding in the area.
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