Motivation for recycling must be bolstered as consumers turn their back on single-use plastics, according to a supplier of recycled plastic pallets.
Goplasticpallets.com supplies companies with recycled plastic pallets, boxes and crates made from household and business waste plastic. Recent high profile news articles on plastics polluting the oceans and conflicting reports about the success rates of recycling could result in a confusing message, warned Jim Hardisty, Managing Director of Goplasticpallets.com.
Jim said: “Consumers and businesses want to dispose of plastics properly but need to be assured their recycling is beneficial. We supply recycled plastic items, giving them a new role as useful, safe and hygienic storage and packaging solutions. They can be used long-term, so this plastic won’t join the masses of single-use items that can’t be recycled and it won’t become an environmental hazard, and can be recycled again at the end of their use. This continuous approach or ‘loop’ and a responsible attitude towards plastic use is crucial in steering plastics away from landfill – or worse – the world’s oceans.”
His sentiment was shared by the signatories of the UK Plastics Pact, a set of pledges signed by more than 40 manufacturers, retailers and trade associations. By 2025, they aim to withdraw single-use plastic packaging by way of better design and make 100% of plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable. At least 30% of that packaging must include recycled material to meet the pledge target and the signatories must make sure 70% of plastic packaging is recycled or composted.
As the World Health Organisation committed to investigate the affect of plastics in drinking water on health, a deposit return scheme was being considered in England for hard-torecycle single-use plastic bottles, as well as glass bottles and drinks cans.
Jim said: “Few of us can say we can’t improve our habits in relation to single-use plastics but it is worrying that people might feel that their efforts to recycle other less avoidable plastics are not doing any good. The UK has a plastic packaging recycling target of 57% by 2020 and while innovators look to make wider use of recycled plastics, I think the greatest incentive to improve recycling rates comes from showing where our efforts are making an impact.
“Our recycled plastic pallets and boxes are used in many different industries over years – decades, even – and they come from exactly the things we all recycle at home. We can provide reassurance that recycling is part of a joined up approach to waste, and one which works to protect the environment.”
“This goes for preventing an overreliance on cardboard and paper, too, and the trees used to make short-life paper and cardboard packaging.”
These recycled plastic pallets, crates, trays and boxes provide safe, strong and hygienic storage and transportation for goods including medicines, car parts, food and drink and are commonly seen in supermarkets, warehouses and throughout supply chains. The durability of the recycled material and the fact it cannot absorb contaminants provides a sustainable use for plastics redirected from waste. A recycled pallet does not rely on new plastic made as a bi-product of oil refinery and at the end of their long use, recycled plastic pallets can be reground to be used again Goplasticpallets.com, based in Eastbourne, East Sussex, supplies clients internationally and is an authorised exporter of plastic waste in the form of plastic pallets and boxes. These are shipped to CABKA_IPS’s plant in Belgium – a specialist facility for making products from recycled plastics.
There, these pallets and boxes are reground and mixed with regrind material produced from detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, plastic lids and other household plastics along with business waste such as drinks crates, recycled plastic pallets, vegetable crates and rubbish bins. This provides a new raw material that by means of intelligent design is made into new sustainable plastic pallets and boxes for long term use in many industries.
The crucial matter of plastic waste was raised by the BBC documentary Blue Planet 2 late last year, with the world’s media picking up new plastic stories every day. As a clearer picture emerges of the global problem of single-use and non-recycled plastic – from the littered beaches of Cambodia to the sea ice of the Arctic – scientists have found an enzyme that ‘eats’ problem plastic like PET (polyethylene terephthalate).
Working with a naturally occurring enzyme found in a dump in Japan in 2016, scientists in Britain and America announced last month that they have improved the ability of the bacteria to break down plastics that can’t be recycled – things like drinks bottles. Jim said, “Innovations like this are a positive step in the right direction of destroying plastic that can’t be recycled. Until we know how to use these broadly, responsible use of plastic and conscientious recycling must remain top of the agenda: it is something we can do here and now, everyday, with so much plastic waste.”
Potential bans on the sale of plastic cotton buds and drinking straws in England, as well as other single-use plastic items, are focused on consumer expectation and behaviour. The previous ban on the sale of microbeads in items like soaps and toothpastes and the 5p charge for plastic bags in England has had a quantifiable impact: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says 9billion fewer bags have been distributed since the change was rolled out.
Jim concluded: “The Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement that the sale of these everyday single-use plastic items could be banned will already be leading people to look for alternatives. This awareness is key, as changing consumer habits takes a long time. It relies upon consumers understanding which plastics can be safely used, reused and recycled and the future use they might have, against which plastics should be avoided.”
Goplasticpallets.com is the UK’s leading independent supplier of plastic pallets, pallet boxes and small containers. The company stocks in excess of 160 different styles of plastic pallets suitable for all types of applications – and many available for next day delivery, 32 different sizes and styles of plastic pallet boxes and a comprehensive range of small containers, crates and trays.
Tel: 01323 744057
Email: sales@goplasticpallets.com
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