Recycling Symbol Confusion
Ever since BBC’s Blue Planet II showed us harrowing images of the damage that plastic pollution causes across our oceans, our dependency on plastic has never been far from the spotlight. There’s no getting away from the fact that the UK currently uses around 5m tonnes of plastic every year. In fact, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), each household produces an average annual 55kg of the stuff. Most of us diligently fill up our recycling bins with plastic each week, but confusing and ambiguous recycling symbols on product packaging don’t exactly make it easy.
In an attempt to standardize recycling across the UK, The Recycling Association has welcomed the publication of The Framework for Greater Consistency in Household Recycling in England as it believes it will help to ensure better quality material for recycling. The Recycling Association chief executive Simon Ellin said: “The idea that everyone could be recycling the same set of core materials no matter where they live in England by 2025 will be a significant boost to the recycling industry”.
According to Good Housekeeping, PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) is one of the most commonly used plastics because it's, durable, lightweight, easy to recycle and poses low risk of leaching. PET or PETE can be recycled through most council and curb side recycling programs.
According to sustainabilityguide.co.uk, PET is the most widely plastic of all and that’s good, because Greenpeace have reported that every single piece of plastic ever made still exists today, so it makes sense to recycle it.
After PET has been recycled it gets cleaned and ground into Post-Consumer Recycled Resin, which is used to make things like polar fleece, garden furniture and carpet. Spectra Packaging are one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of recycled bottles and state that it’s an environmentally kinder alternative to using materials that would normally be disposed of in landfill. Because PCR can be recycled again for new manufacturing, it offers genuine sustainability.
ChooseWell liquid hand washes are bottled in 100% Post-Consumer Recycled PET bottles, which can also be recycled again.
Sources:
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/07/how-much-do-you-know-about-plastic/ http://www.therecyclingassociation.com/latest-news/launch-of-wrap-household-recycling-framework https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/g804/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321/ https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/7281/every-single-piece-of-plastic-ever-made-still-exists-heres-the-story/ https://www.recyclenow.com/ http://www.sustainabilityguide.co.uk/2018/02/05/recyclable-plastic/ https://www.spectra-packaging.co.uk/recycled-packaging/