Why Is Plastics Recycling Important > For Plastics Supply Chain Businesses?
Why Is Plastics Recycling Important For Plastics Supply Chain Businesses?

Good recycling and environmental performance, combined with the cost savings offered by plastics recycling, combine to offer a strategic approach to risk minimisation.

The economic benefits of recycling are clear; compliance with regulation is mandatory; public image preservation is vital. By ensuring consumer and political demands are met, organisations involved in the plastics waste stream are less likely to come under attack for poor environmental performance, or as polluters. Political backlash to consumer and pressure group complaints will be minimised, with a greater level of dialogue and discussion taking place between sector and political representatives.

Although changes in legislation and policy may appear bewildering, there is an underlying certainty:
  • Businesses that understand and act on the fundamental principle of sustainable development will gain competitive advantage.
  • Businesses and sectors that fail to recognise the implications of these issues will lose out.


Risk Minimisation through Involvement in Plastics Recycling

Minimising the risks posed by eco-taxes and legislation

Businesses within the packaging supply chain are coming under increasing pressure from legislation, eco-taxes and material use restrictions.

Examples of eco-taxes that have the potential to cause damage to the plastics industry are present throughout the world - Germany's deposit scheme on single trip beverage containers; Ireland's levy on disposable plastic carrier bags, replicated in Australia and other countries around the world; Taiwan's outright ban on plastic carrier bags, disposable plastic tableware and plastic cups.

Significant profit losses have already been reported by some of those involved in the plastics industry following the introduction of these regimes.

So how can the plastics industry minimise the risk of such potentially damaging restrictions?

While it is impossible to pre-empt the decisions of politicians, the plastics industry is able to ensure that its voice is heard and is effectively represented in the legislative arena.

Recoup provides this active voice through its work to liaise between industry and Government, offering the plastics industry positive representation and influencing key decision makers to minimise any detrimental impact legislative choices may incur. It also provides the industry with the opportunity to counter any misguided views regarding the impact of plastics on the environment, which are often based on public opinion.

Minimising the risks posed by negative public opinion

Many of the eco-taxes the packaging industry has seen introduced thus far have been based largely on reaction to complaints from consumers and pressure groups, many of which are misguided, e.g. citing carrier bags as a major component of street litter when in reality they constitute less than 1%.

Those involved in the plastics packaging industry must realise that as more dry recyclables are removed from the domestic refuse bin to meet weight-based local council targets, plastics will rapidly become the most visible form of household waste, prompting a negative perception of the material as environmentally damaging.

The packaging industry can work to minimise this by becoming actively involved in the development of plastics recycling infrastructure and product recyclability.

Businesses are also under increasing pressure to demonstrate transparency of their activities through the production of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports. Recycling programmes incorporated into business practice can be included in such reporting methods and used to demonstrate the organisation's environmental activities to meet both legislative and customer demands.

Through the production of such CSR reports and by making them publicly available, companies involved in the plastics packaging industry are able to help the general public and pressure groups to be better informed of their environmental commitment and activity.

Protecting your freedom of material choice

Misconceptions of the impact of plastics on the environment can lead to restrictions being placed on product manufacturers as regards their choice of material. This has already been witnessed in Germany as a result of the levy on single-trip beverage containers, in Ireland following the introduction of the taxation on disposable plastic carrier bags and in Taiwan following the outright ban on disposable plastic cutlery, crockery, carrier bags and cups.

Industries involved in the packaging industry understand the demonstrable benefits of plastics as a packaging material. Its lightweight nature is of particular benefit due to transport cost minimisation. In addition, plastics are often the most appropriate material to meet consumer demands of ensured freshness, safety and product visibility.

Companies involved in the packaging industry can safeguard their freedom of material choice by engaging with the recycling industry to provide support for the development of effective plastics recycling within the UK. Developing packaging that can easily be recycled by incorporating recyclability into the product development stage, combined with involvement in the development of the recycling industry, will help to protect both the public and political profile of plastics packaging and reduce the risk of material choice restriction via political intervention.


Genuine efforts to minimise environmental impact and maximise environmental benefit through the introduction of efficient plastics recycling programmes both protects and enhances the public image so vital to maintaining competitive advantage.

If your business supplies or sells plastics and plastic products, Recoup provides you with expertise to develop and implement effective business strategies to key environmental challenges.

Recoup is backed by businesses across the plastics supply, use and waste management sectors. We recognise that to achieve resource efficiency means understanding and unlocking the commercial drivers in the plastics supply chain.

Contact Recoup for further information on how establishing plastics recycling can benefit your organisation.

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