Market Analysis on Recovered Plastics Now Available from WRAP
WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has launched the third in its series of Market Situation Reports, devised to give recyclers, reprocessors and investors the data they need to plan their longer term business strategy.
Realising the value of recovered plastics contains an in-depth analysis of the current state of the UK recovered plastics market, including sections on plastics consumption, plastics recovery and end markets for recovered plastics. Co-authored by Liz Dixon Smith and Peter Sainsbury, both of whom are economists working within WRAP’s Business Growth team, the report also includes detailed information on price fluctuations and a study of the challenges that the industry currently faces.
Liz Dixon Smith says: “The UK recovered plastics industry is facing interesting times. On one side, emerging technologies for closed-loop recycling, strong overseas demand and high virgin polymer prices have all led to rising prices for good quality recovered plastics. On the other, there is growing consumer pressure to be able to recycle more types of plastic in greater volume, and a lack of domestic capacity to process mixed and lower quality plastics. This new report gives a detailed analysis of all the factors affecting the sector so that businesses can make informed choices about the next stage of their development.”
A special section of the report focuses on the international virgin plastics market and its links to the recycled plastics industry. It explains how the prices for virgin and recovered plastics are related and explores the demand and supply interactions between the two sources of polymer.
Liz Dixon Smith comments: “Prices for recovered and virgin plastics are more volatile than those for other recovered materials and this poses another challenge to the UK plastics recycling sector. Prices have risen sharply over the past few years, and although demand for good quality recovered plastics is expected to remain strong in the near future, if prices were to fall it could reduce the commercial incentives to invest in new reprocessing capacity.
“Our special report will help businesses to understand the influence that global markets can have so that they can build in safeguards when planning for the future. The aim is to make sure that the UK continues to have a healthy recovered plastic sector that is capable of competing on the world stage.”
Available free
WRAP’s market situation reports are available free to all industry participants. Interested parties can register to receive the reports on WRAP’s website at www.wrap.org.uk/marketreports. The market situation reports are made available on line after publication.
As well as the new report on recovered plastic, there are reports on the glass and recovered paper sectors currently available. The next report in the series, analysing the organics sector, will be published in the New Year.
Editor's notes:
- WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
- Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
- More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on www.wrap.org.uk
Alison Jones
Proteus Public Relations
Tel: 01295 279626
alison@proteuspr.co.uk
Viki Coppin / Nicola O'Driscoll
WRAP Press Office
Tel: 01295 819695 / 819677
press.office@wrap.org.uk
