The plastics industry has repeated concerns about the forthcoming 2017 plastic recycling targets. The fear is that in order to meet the targets all types of plastics from households will need to be recycled. As a middle ground the industry has suggested that it may be more sensible to send some of the plastic direct to energy recovery rather than to be recycled.

The latest concerns were aired at a recent parliamentary reception and were aimed at the resource minister, Lord de Mauley who was described as being “unsympathetic” to the concerns.

David Eggleston, of Linpac, says: “PTT is an important category. There are a variety of packaging products which makes this sector complex, PET, polystyrene, polypropylene and PE used for yoghurt pots, fresh soup containers, ice cream and margarine tubs and meat trays. Recycling such a mix is very complicated because in order to get a useful rate of material, you have to separate. It will be difficult, but if we don’t crack these problems we won’t meet the targets set for 2017.”