WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLING A GOOD PRACTICES GUIDE

BY AND FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

HOW TO FIND RECYCLED PRODUCTS?

Once a recycled products policy is established, the problem for the L/RA is to find the recycled products.
This finding seems a common obstacle encountered by the L/RA. Other common obstacle is that a
lot of products contain yet recycled plastics, but for commercial reasons the manufacturers do not
desire mention it.
The following recommendations can be helpful to identify the right suppliers:
ask current suppliers if they supply or can supply recycled products
examine current purchasing specifications that prevent the use of recycled materials and
modify them if possible in order to permit the use of recycled plastics
ask for samples and test them
look at product directories, for some specify recycled products
ask national plastic associations (general, converters and recyclers) a list of the companies
which use recycled granulates with a description of the kind of products manufactured
look in existing catalogues 55 and databases56 of recycled products
participate in a network of L/RA on green purchasing
exchange databases of suppliers with other L/RA

55- For example: Favoriser le march des produits du recyclage Inventaire de catalogues europens de produits recycls ACRR June 2002
56- Examples of internet databases: http://www.cycleplast.com/en/index.php3, http://recycledproducts.plasticsresource.com/,

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WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLING A GOOD PRACTICES GUIDE

BY AND FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

CHAPTER 8
The costs and tools to promote plastics recycling
The Costs of Recycling
Recycling costs money and there are four main activities through which these costs are incurred:
selective collection and sorting
transport
processing, including pre-treatment
disposal of rejects from sorting
However, recycling can also generate revenues from the sale of the collected material and savings
through avoided disposal costs and it is balance between costs and revenue that determines the
economic cost-benefits of a scheme.
There are factors outside the control of L/RAs that can influence this balance, such as the market
price of virgin materials. Yet L/RAs can optimise economic expenditure on recycling schemes by
targeting materials identified in waste characterisation studies and selecting collection, sorting and
processing methods and technologies that best suit their individual local and regional characteristics.
Historically, the costs of recycling have exceeded the revenues generated by processed plastics.
However, some materials and waste flows can be seen to be profitable, while many more need only
some support by external sources of funding. This financing need corresponds to the amount of
financial injections necessary to render recycling profitable from a recyclers point of view.
A TNO report, commissioned by APME, identified a number of specific plastic flows that under
current practices are profitable or need only partial support. These included:
Distribution and commercial films and crates
PET and HDPE bottles
EPS packaging
PVC pipes and Windows
Agricultural films
Automotive bumpers
This situation however, only reflects current practice; those flows that are not seen to be profitable
at the moment may well be so in the future as new sorting and processing technologies emerge.
General Trends in Collection and Processing Costs
While it is beyond the scope of this study to collate and analyse costs of all the various options of
waste plastics management, it is interesting to consider the likely evolution of costs and revenues
in the future.

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