WRAP announces mixed plastics recycling loan
Plastic recycling in the UK is to be boosted with a massive £2m loan from WRAP. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is to support the reprocessing of the UK’s plastic food trays, margarine tubs and yoghurt pots with what is being called the Mixed Plastics Loan Fund (MPLF).
The aim of the MPLF is to aid potential investment in the recycling of mixed plastics, 90 per cent of which currently end up in landfill. Applications can be made for the fund from now until December 31.
According to WRAP’s plastic sector specialist, the potential market for mixed plastic recycling is between £250m and £500m a year. Presently, most of the UK’s plastics (other than bottles) are sent to China for processing.
Only around four per cent of non-bottle plastic recycling currently takes place in the UK, but recycled plastics can sell for anything from between 50 per cent and 100 per cent of the price of virgin polymers. At £900 to £1,000 per tonne, the economic benefits for the UK could be massive.
Funding for such schemes have been hard to come by through traditional sources, but the new loan hopes to address this imbalance. WRAP’s director of market development Marcus Gover said investors can pay back the loan cash when they start making a profit and that those funds can then be reinvested into the mixed recycling market.