The monthly packaging waste data for October has shown that some grades have now met their packaging waste recycling and recovery targets for 2020.
The latest figures, released by the Environment Agency on the NPWD earlier this month, report on the amount of packaging waste that has been recycled or exported between 10 October to 10 November 2020.
The data shows continued progress towards comfortable achievement of packaging waste recycling and recovery targets for 2020, with paper, aluminium and steel already achieving the production levels needed for this year.
October was a particularly strong month for paper production, with 380,267 tonnes reported, an additional 323,000 tonnes since the Q3 data was released last month. With 2019 carry over taken into account, paper has now achieved its target for 2020.
Another grade reporting very strong production in October is aluminium, with 15,394 tonnes reported – an additional 7,800 tonnes added since the Q3 data. Aluminium has also achieved its recycling and recovery target for 2020 with carry over, as has steel, which reported a very strong 43,599 tonnes production in October.
Glass total needs 196,042 tonnes through November and December and looks set to achieve its overall recycling target for 2020. This year’s positive production provides confidence ahead of the increase in glass targets for 2021 and 2022, with glass remelt seeing a large rise in targets, moving from 67% in 2020 to 72% next year.
Plastic and wood are two grades close to achieving recycling targets for 2020. Plastic production in October was relatively positive, and with 100,848 tonnes reported. Including carry over from 2019, plastic is now only 52,300 tonnes short of its 2020 target, with 2 months remaining.
Wood has under 9,000 tonnes left to recovery to achieve its target, including 2019 carry over.