Plastics

·         The Government estimates that the total amount of plastic waste arising in the UK is estimated at about 5.9 million tonnes per annum. Non-packaging plastics account for 64 per cent. of the overall plastics arising in the waste stream, originating mainly from the construction, electrical, transport, furniture and agriculture sectors.

·         Some 25 per cent. of plastic bottles used in the UK are now recycled, compared with 2001, when the collection rate was only 5 per cent

·         The currently recycles or recovers approximately 19 per cent. of all plastic consumed and this is set to increase to over 25 per cent. by 2010

·         According to WRAP the distribution and disposal of the 13 billion plastic carrier bags given out every year in the UK at around 234,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.

·         Plastic can be recycled as fibres (insulating material in fleece jackets, sleeping bags) and packaging.

Wood

• Currently up to 10 million tonnes of waste wood is produced in the UK each year, most of which goes to landfill, the vast majority of which comes from construction and demolition activities
• There are just over 1 million tonnes of municipal waste wood arisings each year in the UK
• Defra have stated that it is estimated that recovering energy from 2 million tonnes of waste wood could generate 2600GWh electricity and save 1.15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.

Glass

·          Glass recycling began in 1977 with the installation of the first bottle bank. There are now more than 17,000 bottle banks, as well as collection of glass from doorstep recycling collections

·          More than a 1.2 million tonnes of glass is recycled, the large majority (840,000 tonnes) comes from household recycling

·          We use around 2.4 million tonnes of container glass in the UK every year. 

·          Glass can be recycled as new glass containers, flat glass, glass fibre, and aggregates.

·          Recycling glass saves energy saving – when making new containers, 315Kg of CO2 is saved for every tonne of recycled glass used.

Paper and Cardboard

• We use 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard every year in the UK
• 1.5 million tonnes of paper and card are recycled from municipal waste each year
• Recycled paper made up 80.6% of the raw materials for UK newspapers by the end of 2006
• The commercial and industrial sector generates about 60% of this waste.
• Industry recycle or reuse over 90% of the segregated paper and card waste, while it is estimated that approximately 10% of municipal paper and card waste is recycled.

Useful Links

Plastics

Wasteonline: Briefing note

Defra: FAQs

Sources: Parliamentary answers Hansard1 Hansard2

Wood

Defra: Waste wood; Waste wood as a biomass fuel report

WRAP: Review of waste wood arisings and management

Glass

Defra: Glass recycling statistics

WRAP: Glass factsheet

Paper and Cardboard

Parliamentary Answers Hansard

WRAP: Paper background