Biffa: ‘Stop plastic scrap exports and create jobs’

One of the leading UK recyclers, Biffa, claims 5 400 jobs could be created if the country stopped exporting plastic packaging scrap and processed it all domestically.

The company points out that only half of the UK’s plastic packaging waste is recycled and, of that, only half is processed in the UK. The remainder is exported for processing abroad. ‘By exporting the unprocessed plastic waste it produces, the UK evades its responsibility to deal with its own waste,’ a new report insists.

Biffa commissioned the report from consultants Hybrid who argue that keeping plastic packaging scrap in the UK is ‘the great big circular economy win’. With the right policies but no public money, the report concludes, UK recyclers could process all of the UK’s recyclable plastic packaging waste, generating over £900 million (EUR 1 028 million) of economic activity each year.

Economy boost

The Hybrid report finds that, by 2030, if the UK recycled onshore all the plastic packaging waste that is currently exported, it would:

• support the creation of more than 5 400 new jobs, of which 2 700 would be new green jobs

• boost the UK economy by £540 million annually

• provide at least £100 million of new tax revenues a year to the Treasury

• make the UK’s supply chain of virgin plastic products more resilient.

• support more than 9 000 jobs across the UK economy when combined with existing recycling sector capacity

‘Delivering this boost to the economy does not require a single penny from the government,’ says Hybrid. ‘But it needs the government to provide the right incentives to attract private investment and ensure that the plastic waste currently sent abroad is recycled in the UK.’

Triple call

According to James McLeary, md of Biffa Polymers, three policy measures are vital:

• phasing out exports of unprocessed plastic packaging waste
• strengthening the Plastic Packaging Tax with a clear trajectory for recycled content thresholds and tax rates
• introducing third-party certification for imported recycled plastic to prevent fraud

‘These measures would help create the conditions to enable private investment, close the cost gap between virgin and recycled materials and ensure that more of the value created by recycling stays within the UK,’ he says.

‘The UK can lead this transition but the government must intervene to level the playing field and provide investment-grade policy. Private business will do the rest.’