BPF Urges Growth in Recyclable Packaging

The event was the UK’s Global Research and Innovation in Plastics conference, organised by Dr Sally Beken of Innovate UK and co-located with the UK plastics industry’s Sustainable live exhibition at the Coventry Building Society Arena, May 10-11th.

Brian’s talk covered all the major practicalities and difficulties, in designing and manufacturing plastics packaging that is recyclable. He said that ‘it is important that all plastic packaging is recyclable at end of its life - including reusable and light-weighted packs - so that we can develop a true circular economy in order to reduce emissions and litter.’

For some time now the BPF has argued that good design choices for packaging ultimately create a higher quality input for recycling facilities at the end of the pack life. This in turn yields a higher quality polymer output - essential for those converters who need to incorporate the recyclate into second life packaging.

Brian also reports that good pack design is now becoming financially imperative for manufacturers, partly because of the constraints of the UK’s Plastics Packaging Tax (PPT), partly through upcoming legislation via Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and partly through retailing and consumer demand.

He comments that ‘the BPF has a key role here in encouraging best design practice for recyclability. We have a plethora of resources and tools at our disposal - PackScore, courses, seminars and advice – in order to enable our members to achieve it. In fact, joining the BPF is one of the smartest moves for those looking to succeed in this field.’

The BPF exhibited at the Sustainable live show alongside the live GRIPS conference and received a steady flow of membership enquiries through both days.

BPF expertise is increasingly becoming central to the UK’s environmental development work; leading the way in terms of energy and factory efficiency methods as well as guiding manufacturers towards best practice in sustainable manufacturing.

The BPF points out that in most cases plastics packaging has the lowest carbon footprint of any packaging material and should often be embraced as an environmental solution and not a problem.

In terms of end-of-life packaging that has no ready ‘mechanical recycling’ solution – disposable and flexible packaging for example - the BPF is also a strong supporter of the movement that advocates mass balance based chemical recycling. The BPF has this month formed a chemical recycling group in order to coordinate expertise and to press for the UK’s early adoption of the mass balance technology.

Brian explains that ‘chemical recycling is an essential part of the whole picture – enabling us to recover and recycle polyolefin material that is viable for direct food contact and making it available in much greater quantities.’

All further details of BPF membership and of the BPF Packaging Group activities are available here.