Around 70% of the soft plastic collected in supermarket recycling systems and tracked after collection ends up being incinerated, a survey by campaigners shows.
By placing tracking devices in soft plastic packages collected by British supermarket chains Sainsbury’s and Tesco in July 2023 and February 2024, campaigners found that most of them ended up being incinerated and not recycled as they should have been.
Everyday Plasticwhich carried out the investigation with the Environmental Investigation Agency, tracked plastic parcels that supermarkets collected from customers with the promise that they would be recycled.
Out of 40 plastic packages, tracking devices reached their final destination in 17 cases. Of those, 12 packages were used as fuel pellets or burned for energy, they note The Guardian.
Much of the collected plastic was not recycled
Alison Colclough, of Everyday Plastic, said: “Our trackers reveal the hard truth about soft plastic recycling systems at supermarkets – soft plastic packaging will not be recycled. Most of the packages we tracked ended up being incinerated for energy recovery – a solution that is increasingly being used to deal with the unmanageable amount of plastic waste.”
Collection systems are presented as a solution, which distracts attention from the main problem that cannot be overlooked: far too much unnecessary plastic packaging is being produced, the specialist emphasizes.
Too much packaging in the world
The UK sends most of the plastic it collects for recycling abroad, exporting almost 600,000 tonnes in 2023, a 10% increase on the previous year. In August 2023 alone, almost 53,000 tons of plastic waste were exported.
Turkey was the largest destination for UK plastic waste exports in 2023, receiving more than 140,000 tonnes. The Netherlands was the second destination, with 116,500 metric tons.
We also recommend that you read:
Microplastics could also end up in people’s brains through breathing
Here is the only animal that is not affected by microplastics!
How many Romanians think they are directly responsible for collecting plastic waste?
Plastic bags, climate disaster. How does Australia want to recycle them?
Source: www.descopera.ro
