UK collection of plastic packaging for recycling increases to 414kt << Back to Main News Page Added: Monday, 19 June 2006 Latest figures issued by DEFRA show that just over 414kt of the UK's plastic packaging was recycled and reported under the packaging producer responsibility system of PRNs and PERNs. This represents a 21.8% recycling rate of plastic packaging. The figures confirm the view that the market for PRNs ended 2005 reasonably well balanced, with the demand being for a little over 400kt of plastics PRNs and PERNs. It is believed that domestic plastics recycling represented a growing proportion of total supplies - with around 67ktonnes (16%) of reported recycling generated from household sources. In during 2005, 176kt (43%) of collected plastics were recycled in the UK and almost 238kt (57%) were exported for recycling with the main markets being in Asia. There was a slight shift of material back to domestic markets in Q4, but this is not viewed as reflecting a significant change in trends, which have reflected a growing proportion of export sales. Due to increases in targets for recycling in 2006, and changes in the basis for reporting obligations, Recoup expects that plastics recycling will have to further increase to around 450kt in 2006. There has been 'carry over' of 16kt of PRNs and PERNs into 2006 - which was consistent with the 2005 position. For the full dataset go to: www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/waste/topics/packaging/data.htm