Plastics in the sea – it’s needed for recycling and energy

Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society debate “Plastics in the Oceans” yesterday, the Director General of the British Plastics Federation (BPF) Peter Davis stressed the huge benefits in lightening vehicles, aircrafts and packaging to save fuel.

Davis featured alongside panelists David de Rothschild, leader of The Plastiki Expedition and Dr Simon Boxall of the National Oceanography Centre who discussed the ‘emerging problem of marine litter.’

Davis said, “Great progress has been made on plastics recycling with 40% of all bottles recycled. Used plastics can be recycled up to six times and then becomes a source of much needed energy through energy from waste. We want to double plastics packaging recycling by 2020. The plastics industry does not want plastics land filled, dumped or littered – we want it back for recycling. The Plastics Industry wishes work with all stakeholders to prevent plastics getting into rivers and seas. ”

“It was valuable to show the benefits we all receive from plastic products, but I emphasized that we don’t want our material littered, dumped or landfilled. I also announced a range of initiatives to try and prevent this happening.”


Plastic Industry Initiatives

• Peter Davis said, “We participated in the Marine Conservations Society’s (MCS) Beach Clean in September.” The Plastics 2020 Challenge is sponsoring the MCS ‘Bottle Champions     recycling campaign in thirty primary schools.

• The BPF are on a DEFRA work team preparing for the National Litter Convention on 16th December

• The BPF’s, “Operation Clean Sweep – plastic pellet loss prevention” aims to prevent raw material escaping into the environment.

• The BPF and other European plastics bodies are sponsoring the University of Ghent study into Microplastics ingestion by lugworms and mussels.

• We are a partner in a pan European Waste free Oceans project and have applied for 50% funding from the European Commission. Across Europe there would be: training seminars for fishermen and port workers; litter prevention initiatives in schools; looking at the effectiveness of legislation and law enforcement; best practice in waste management; industry initiatives such as operation clean sweep and also initiatives such as “fishing for litter.”

Davis added, “We need to prevent littering with more bins and use of fines but most important, education. Illegal dumping at sea must be prevented with enforcement but also better waste management at ports and marinas. It is a global problem and requires global solutions but governments need to lead, co-operate and co-ordinate action to ensure all types of litter do not end up in the marine environment.” 


                                                                                                                     ENDS


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Notes for editors:


British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the plastics industry – representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.