recycling Archives

What to do about plastics? Lessons from a study of UK plastics flows

A new study of UK plastics flows co-authored by TransFIRe researchers Michał Drewniok and Jonathan Cullen shows that 1/3 of related green house gas (GHG) emissions could be reduced by increasing recycling capacity and reducing demand. Plastics are pervasive. We use them every day in our phones, laptops, clothes, and cars. Plastics have also been found in the most unlikely places, from the human bloodstream to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Public concern about the use and disposal of plastic has soared in recent years, catalysed by David Attenborough’s documentary pleas and enduring images of seahorses grasping Q-tips circulating on social media. But alongside issues of marine and terrestrial pollution sits the less visible contribution of plastics to climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are released when heat is generated for the chemical reactions required to manufacture plastics, and from those reactions themselves. Emissions also result from the management of waste [...]

Could a national glass bottle return and refill scheme work in the UK? An industry perspective

In 2019, the UK recovered 71% of single-use glass by mass, but only around 36% was used to make new container glass. This low circular rate is partly because the UK has a mixed collection system which requires the glass to be sorted into different colours before remelting and results in less cullet (waste glass for remelting) returned than in separated colour collection. Much of the glass is therefore used in aggregates for roads, resulting in nearly 50% of potential cullet not being used for new container glass bottles. The international nature of glass production and trade also means a large percentage of the bottles manufactured in the UK, particularly clear bottles, are exported for recycling, resulting in a loss of materials over which the industry has control. These and other challenges to circular-loop recycling of container glass raise the question of why there are not large-scale national refill [...]