Heavy duty conveyors used to sort waste plastics are likely to have processed significantly more household bottles in 2009 than 2008.
There was a 22 per cent year-on-year increase in bottle collections from bring and kerbside schemes run by local authorities in 2009 compared to the previous year, new data from Recoup indicates.
Councils reported that they collected 46,902 tonnes more waste plastic bottles over the 12 month period, with figures indicative of a household plastic bottle waste recycling rate of 46 per cent.
The highest proportion of plastic bottle waste that was then transported to industrial conveyor belts in processing plants is likely to have come via kerbside collections, which totalled 215,576 tonnes in 2009, the report indicates.
Recoup also states in its report: "The total number of local authorities now offering a plastic bottle collection through kerbside is 360.
"These kerbside schemes now provide collections for approximately 23.3 million households representing an increase of approximately 29 per cent in the last year."
Earlier this month, Friends of the Earth (FoE) told Let's Recycle that the UK could be doing more waste recycling.
FoE waste campaigner Becky Slater suggested that the government should introduce a 70 per cent recycling target for 2020, to improve the UK's environmental credentials.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the recycling industry includes; Conveyors – screw conveyors – chain conveyors – belt conveyors
Posted by Andy Parsons
