GOOD PRACTICES GUIDE ON WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLING A GUIDE BY AND FOR LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

1. GOOD PRACTICES GUIDEON WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLINGA GUIDE BY AND FOR LOCALAND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES A SUMMARY OF RELEVANT POINTS ACRR Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling

2. WHY RECYCLING PLASTICS ? • Dramatic growth of plastic consumption and creation of waste plastics in 40 years: • Increase in total weight by a factor of 55 • Increase per capita by a factor of 35 • Critical increase in mass and volume (OECD): • - 8% of the mass • - 20% of the volume of MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) in Western Europe Problems with landfills and incinerators Plastic bottles are estimated to occupy twice as much space in landfill as mixed waste. Most waste plastics have a high calorific value (CV) – at about 40 MJ/kg - similar to fuel oil. Therefore: need for new incinerators.

3. Possible solution: The recovery of materials for recycling through selective collection ADVANTAGES: Decrease in volume and mass of MSW Active involvement of population in environmental-friendly actions Increase in public demand of kerbside collection services

4. Issues affecting the recycling of waste plastics Broad variety of plastics: In efficient recycling terms collected materials must be as homogeneous or pure as possible. Homogeneous streams from household waste plastics are difficult to obtain because of the variety of products and polymer types used. For lightweight plastics contaminated with food residues the energy and resources needed for cleaning and recycling materials may not be justifiable in economic or environmental terms.

5. Why do all selective collection schemesfor HOUSEHOLD waste focus on PLASTIC BOTTLES? • Homogeneous waste: Mostly PET • (polyethylene terephthalate or HDPE • (high density polyethylene) • Easy to identify and to separate by automatic • methods

6. Environmental aspects Recycling waste plastics can: Avoid wastage of resources. Reduce the need for new waste disposal facilities Limit greenhouse gases emission

7. Economic aspects Recycling can be an opportunity to create local jobs in collection, sorting, communications, administration and reprocessing. Waste plastics recycling can help reduce waste treatment costs of landfills and incinerators.

8. Social aspects The Nimby reaction. Reduction of need for new incinerators or landfill capacity. Heightened public environmental awareness

9. HOUSEHOLD PLASTIC FLOW – ITS IMPORTANCE FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL AUTHORITIES European consumption by application

10. Main applications for plastics Household Packaging: 73% Packaging: ONE THIRD of the total Distributing packaging in industry: 27% Packaging applications are usually short-lived Over 90 per cent of all PET manufactured is used as packaging, as carbonated drinks bottles for example. Therefore

11. The majority of PET manufactured within a given year, becomes waste in the same year.

12. Critical issues incollecting and processing household waste plastics • variety of different materials, 2.low bulk density of plastic (~ 20-30 kg/m3) : a large volume of waste plastics must be collected to achieve a worthwhile mass of material. 3. 70% of household disposed plastic is packaging: rigid and flexible plastics, are not available in consistent quantities for collection and recycling. However

13. it is possible to isolate particular homogeneous, clean flows,which are suitable for recycling and many ofthese focus on plastic bottles.

14. Why plastic bottles? 6. With increasing disposal costs, the selective collection and recyclin of plastic bottles is an option which is economically interesting. 1. plastic bottles represent the main plastic packaging from households (46 per cent ofhousehold plastic packaging in Belgium, 40 per cent in the UK). 2. most are made with only two kinds of polymer: PET and HDPE. 3. The waste holder can easily recognise and separate plastic bottles from the rest of the waste. 4. The plastic bottles are easy to recognise at the sorting plant. They can easily be separated by resin or optically by colour. 5. There is a developed market for the sale of the sorted plastic bottles.

15. HOUSEHOLD WASTE PLASTICS COLLECTION SYSTEMS Collection schemes serving households include: • kerbside collection (mainly plastic bottles) 2. neighbourhood containers (mainly plastic bottles). They are sited in typical locations visited by householders. 3. container parks. A container park is a collection facility most typically used for the collection of non-bottle wasteplastics. The type of collection scheme that L/RAs choose to adopt is influenced by the types of waste and waste flows that are targeted. kerbside collection and neighbourhood containers: - plastic bottles - films.

16. The costs of plastics recycling Recycling costs money due to: selective collection and sorting transport processing, including pre-treatment disposal of rejects from sorting For HDPE, PET, among others, the most environmental friendly option is the recycling followed by Incineration, while landfilling takes the third place. However

17. The best ever option is reuse PET and HPDE refill and reuse schemes exist in many northern European countries. The Finnish Ministry of Environment states that: In order to promote sustainable consumption and production, everyone must make choices that minimise the burden on the environment. Sustainable consumption and production are based on the sparing use of natural resources and raw materials, and the preferential use of renewable resources. Taken from : http://www.ymparisto.fi/download.asp?contentid=16253&lan=en

18. Time for a change? Throw-away vs long-life plastics In Italy very few plastic bottle refill and reuse schemes are in place.