UK recycling rates still behind the rest of West Europe

The latest UK Household Plastics Packaging Collection Survey by Recoup shows that:

• 72% of HDPE milk bottles were recycled in 2009, substantially up from 57% in 2008.
• Overall plastic collection for recycling rose by 22%.
• 46% of plastic bottles were collected, compared with 39% in 2008 and just 13% in 2005.
• Kerbside collection coverage increased by 29% in 2009 to 23.3m households.

Yet, 10% of local authorities still don’t offer any kerbside collection, and 38% don’t operate additional ‘bring’ schemes.

Moreover, the UK was ranked 21 out of 29 European countries for plastic recycling and energy recovery in 2009, behind all the rest of West Europe as well as Poland and Estonia (among others).

The UK achieved just 25%, while nine countries managed rates above 80%, so there’s still a very long way to go.

Richard Hall is chairman of Zenith International. You can also read his blog at BevBlog.