With Net Zero firmly on the agenda and the UK Government bringing forward an Environment Bill that will result in the UK aiming to lead the way on many fronts, including its recycling performance, all of those involved in recycling are looking at practises and procedures to ensure materials collected for recycling are properly tracked and monitored through the recycling process.
re3 is fortunate that all plastic collected from Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham Boroughs households is sorted to a high quality 4-grades of plastic at the Material Recycling Facility in Reading. The plastic material is later baled and then transported to the UK plastic recycling facilities. At the plastic recycling plant, plastic is further washed, processed, shredded and melted into feed stocks for packaging companies (flakes and pellets).
FCC Environment is responsible, under the contract with re3 councils, for identifying and securing markets for the materials collected and to achieve the best value.
The re3 partnership requires FCC Environment to undertake audits on the companies employed to reprocess recyclables. These audits ensure the companies used are compliant with waste licensing, have sufficient waste storage processing facilities and disclose any enforcement notices, prosecutions or warnings within the last five years. The audit process enables the re3 partnership to monitor the end market of material, providing reassurance that the recyclable material is being processed ethically and environmentally. This procedure and the quality of the re3 plastics produced from the Reading MRF allows us to send 100% of all re3 plastics to be further processed into feed stocks for use in the manufacturing process, allowing us to ensure residents that plastic waste collected from the re3 households is used in the circular economy.
We are very pleased that since the enhancement to the service in 2018 (introduction of plastic pots, tubs and trays to the kerbside collection), re3 has seen a significant – 82% increase in plastic recycling over a three-year period reflecting positively on residents’ commitments and public involvement in tackling plastic pollution. We are hoping that this further reassurance will help residents to continue playing their great part in recycling activity minimising the plastic impact on the environment and effectively use available kerbside recycling services.
We are concerned that the recent news covered in the national media has led to claims that plastic, in particular, collected for recycling, could end up at the illegal landfill sites at the less wealthy countries or being incinerated instead of recycled. That is not the case for re3. However it seems to be the case that more recyclables are collected in the UK than regional manufacturing capacity can process and manufacture into new products. Therefore, re3 supports steps outlined in the Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy that provides foundation for further increasing UK manufacturing capacity so that recycling generated in the UK can increasingly be achieved closer to home.
More information on what happens to your plastic waste and other recyclables, including re3 performance overview can be found in the recently published Annual Environmental Report.
Find out what type of plastic can be recycled across re3.
Watch the re3 MRF video and learn about the journey of recyclables.