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Swiss report questions benefits of plastic bottle recycling
Landfilling plastic bottles can have a lower carbon footprint than recycling in countries with recycling yields of lower than 50%, according to a Swiss report.
SRI Consulting's 'PET's Carbon Footprint: To Recycle or Not to Recycle' analysed the carbon footprint of PET bottles from the production of raw material to disposal and secondary packaging from cradle to grave.
It found that programmes such as deposits and mandated segregated collections had a higher yield than kerbside collections in terms of generating material to replace virgin PET in new products.
SRIC said the aim should be to boost the yield to more than 50% of material being collected being turned into new products.
"This key is not in raising collection rates, but in improving yields, especially in sorting and to a lesser extent in reprocessing," said Mike Arné, assistant director of SRIC's carbon footprint initiative.
"For countries without a recycling infrastructure and sufficient space, the best choice may well be to landfill bottles."
The British Plastics Federation said that while it was a complicated issue, in its view "recycling should always be the number one course of action in plastics waste management".
Shipping has little impact on carbon footprint
The report found that shipping distances were not critical to the carbon footprint, meaning that sending material to China did have a significant effect on carbon emissions.
SRIC said that incineration created the highest carbon footprint. "This can be somewhat reduced by generating power and heat from the incinerator, but the net effect is still carbon positive," SRIC said.
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