UK government invites consumers to take the plastic pledge
Consumers in the UK are being encouraged to take a pledge to recycle one more plastic bottle per week, as the British government gears up to meet its rigorous plastic recycling targets.
The new Pledge 4 Plastics campaign begins this September and is being supported by major businesses including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Marks & Spencer, Unilever, Nestlé and Veolia, as well as organisations such as Plastics Europe, WRAP and the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Local councils are also being encouraged to get involved. Overall, the government aims to double the volume of plastic packaging recycled by 2017 and reach a recycling rate of 42% (1.2m tonnes of plastic).
Run by plastics recycling organisation Recoup, Pledge 4 Plastics will seek to encourage consumers to pledge their support online, committing to recycle more plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays in the home. The primary focus will be on bottles, as almost all UK councils run kerbside collections for plastic bottles (versus 60% for pots, tubs and trays). The first thousand people to pledge are being offered the chance to win a limited edition mobile phone cover designed by TV presenter and designer Abigail Ahern and made from 80% plastic bottles.
Some 2.5m tonnes of plastic packaging are currently used in the UK each year, estimates Recoup, including 33m plastic bottles per day. While 7bn plastic bottles were collected from UK homes for recycling in 2012, 5bn were sent to landfill, it says, illustrating the significant potential to boost recycling rates.
“It’s always encouraging to see new consumer-focused campaigns raising awareness of the need to recycle plastic waste,” says Nigel Hunton, MBA Polymers’ CEO. “Importantly, Pledge 4 Plastics is opening people’s eyes to the new products that can be made from recycled plastic and helping to shed a light on what happens to an empty plastic bottle once it’s collected for recycling. Having a fuller picture of the story could really help to boost people’s understanding of why recycling is important.”
To find out more about using MBA Polymer’s high quality recycled plastics in new products, please contact us. For more information on the Pledge 4 Plastics campaign, click here.