Plastics Recycling Update    

(Written by Frances Palmer, NGIA, Published NGIA newsletter Mar'09)

3R Group supplied NGIA with a report in December outlining the industry problem and highlighting factors that will influence the final programme.

The findings from the survey show that the problem is consistent with all industry members and that plastic has been identified as the biggest solid waste problem.  This impacts on the industry by way of waste disposal costs and the perception by the consumer of the industry.

Factors to influence plastics recovery:

• The Waste Minimisation Act to be introduced in July 09 will see the cost of waste disposal rise
• Industry participants vary greatly in size and the programme must be flexible to the needs of each individual
• The industry generates a wide range of plastic types and products.  Sorting the types and cleaning the products will need to be addressed.  The challenge is to develop a sustainable programme that deals with the different types.
• A plastic recovery programme must present real value for the consumer to participate in the scheme, and could be promoted by a series of targeted collection events when a lot of promotional activity is occurring already eg Labour Weekend, Easter/autumn planting
• Any recovery programme needs to be commercially viable without including the potential income from the sale of the plastic; therefore it is likely that there will be some cost for participating members
• The scheme could be promoted to the public as a ‘gardenwise’ initiative offered by participating members to their customers
• It makes best sense for the recovered plastic resin to be remanufactured back into plastic products for the industry.  This could lead in the long term to ‘NGIA Approved’ pots
• Certain plastic types could be incorporated into the current AgRecovery scheme operated by 3R

3R expect to design a programme with a view to presenting recommendations by the end of March 2009.