A loan scheme has been implemented by a government funded agency to boost the recycling of mixed plastic packaging.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) launched the two million pound Mixed Plastics Loan Fund to finance recycling of mixed plastics in the private sector. Although plastic bottles are widely recycled, many other plastics are discarded with domestic waste. The loan should help fulfill WRAP’s business plan, which seeks to deliver 40,000 tonnes of mixed plastics recycling capacity by 2011.

The agency claimed that mixed plastics compose seven per cent of the weight of domestic rubbish, due to such items as yogurt containers, meat trays and margarine tubs being thrown away. The perception that recycling mixed plastics is economically unfeasible was disputed by WRAP in their report The Financial Costs of Collecting Mixed Plastics Packaging published June 2009.

Marcus Gover, WRAP’s director of market development hopes the loan will overcome the initial financial barrier faced by companies when investing in recycling. He explains: “A reduction in available capital brought on by the current economic climate together with recent market price volatility in recovered materials has meant that the risk-reward balance is still a barrier to private sector investment in mixed plastics recycling in the UK.”

The chief executive designate of Packaging and Films Association (PAFA), Barry Turner says: “The technology to recycle plastics and recover its value has been around for a long time but by chasing recycling targets by weight, the inherently lightweight plastic packaging has been ignored…[n]ow is the time to recognise plastics for their real worth as part of the environmental solution rather than a problem.”

PAFA has also called for greater consistency in recycling collections across the UK, to eradicate confusion about which plastics can be recycled.